Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace Russian nationalist opinion became a major domestic factor in its support for liberating Balkan Christians from Ottoman rule and making Bulgaria and Serbia independent. In Constantinople , the capital of the Byzantine Empire and centre of Orthodox Christianity, fell into the hands of the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

4. Rise To Power And Accomplishments

Russian Empire The Russian Empire [lower-alpha 1] was an empire that extended across Eurasia and North America from , following the end of the Great Northern War , until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of In Russia lost southern Sakhalin to Japan, but in the Empire established a protectorate over Tuva.

/07/23 · The Russian Empire was never noted for its efficiency, and its rulers often struggled to respond to the periodic famines that were a feature of life in the provinces. As late as , the tsar responded to widespread crop failures by forbidding newspapers .

10 Dark Secrets Of The Russian Empire - Listverse

2016/07/23 · The Russian Empire was never noted for its efficiency, and its rulers often struggled to respond to the periodic famines that were a feature of life in the provinces. As late as 1891, the tsar responded to widespread crop failures by forbidding newspapers …

Tsarist Russian Empire Article about Tsarist Russian Empire by …

The Russian Empire was a hereditary monarchy headed by an emperor who possessed autocratic power. The emperor’s power was affirmed in the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire. Members of the emperor’s family and his relatives made up the house of Romanov. The emperor exercised legislative power through the State Council (from 1810 ...

The Russian Empire. Russia in the 19th century was both a multilingual and a multireligious empire. Only about half the population was at the same time Russian by and Orthodox by religion. The Orthodox were to some extent privileged in comparison with the other Christians; all Christians enjoyed a higher status than Muslims; and the latter were not so as the Jews.

Russian Empire. | Russian Empire

The Russian Empire lasted about Defloration Sex, and it stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. In its peak, the Russian Empire controlled 8. He wanted to create a Russia that would be both wise Christine Young Tube prosperous. He encouraged the development of industry, commerce, and relations with other peoples. She ruled the Russian empire with absolute power, but she still felt a responsibility to be fair and just to her people, so she opted for a combination of territorial expansion and diplomacy.

The Russian Empire authorities were elected, and the delegates dealt with the local and district-wide issues. This emphasis on local control and fairness allowed the Russian Empire Empire to thrive Russian Empire prosper. Eventually, the people became unhappy with the rule of the czars and wanted a different form of government. The Bolshevik Party communists ultimately came to power after the Russian Empire fell.

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According to returns published in , based on the Russian Imperial Census of , adherents of the different religious communities in the whole of the Russian empire numbered approximately as follows. The ecclesiastical heads of the national Russian Orthodox Church consisted of three metropolitans Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev , fourteen archbishops and fifty bishops, all drawn from the ranks of the monastic celibate clergy.

The parochial clergy had to be married when appointed, but if left widowers were not allowed to marry again; this rule continues to apply today. The military of the Russian Empire consisted of the Imperial Russian Army and the Imperial Russian Navy. However the Russian forces fell further behind the technology, training and organization of the German, French and particularly the British military.

The army performed poorly in World War I and became a center of unrest and revolutionary activity. The events of the February Revolution and the fierce political struggles inside army units facilitated disintegration and made it irreversible. The Russian Empire was, predominantly, a rural society spread over vast spaces. Soviet historiography proclaimed that the Russian Empire of the 19th century was characterized by systemic crisis, which impoverished the workers and peasants and culminated in the revolutions of the early 20th century.

Mironov assesses the effects of the reforms of latter 19th-century especially in terms of the emancipation of the serfs, agricultural output trends, various standard of living indicators, and taxation of peasants. He argues that they brought about measurable improvements in social welfare. Subjects of the Russian Empire were segregated into sosloviyes , or social estates classes such as nobility dvoryanstvo , clergy, merchants, cossacks and peasants. A majority of the people, A part of them were formerly serfs 10,, males in — the remainder being " state peasants " 9,, males in , exclusive of the Archangel Governorate and " domain peasants " , males the same year.

The serfdom that had developed in Russia in the 16th century, and had become enshrined by law in , was abolished in The household servants or dependents attached to the personal service were merely set free, while the landed peasants received their houses and orchards, and allotments of arable land. These allotments were given over to the rural commune, the mir , which was made responsible for the payment of taxes for the allotments. For these allotments the peasants had to pay a fixed rent, which could be fulfilled by personal labour.

The allotments could be redeemed by peasants with the help of the Crown, and then they were freed from all obligations to the landlord. The financial redemption to the landlord was not calculated on the value of the allotments, but was considered as a compensation for the loss of the compulsory labour of the serfs. The result was to compel the peasants to rent land from their former masters.

The former serfs became peasants, joining the millions of farmers who were already in the peasant status. Hundreds of thousands of move to cities to work in factories, but they typically retained their village connections. After the Emancipation reform, one quarter of peasants received allotments of only 2. Land must thus of necessity be rented from the landlords. The areas increased every year; one-fifth of the inhabitants left their houses; cattle disappeared.

In the governments of the Black Earth Area the state of matters was hardly better. Many peasants took "gratuitous allotments," whose amount was about one-eighth of the normal allotments. The average allotment in Kherson was only 0. The state peasants were better off, but still they were emigrating in masses. In Ukraine , where the allotments were personal the mir existing only among state peasants , the state of affairs does not differ for the better, on account of the high redemption taxes.

In the western provinces, where the land was valued cheaper and the allotments somewhat increased after the Polish insurrection , the general situation was better. Finally, in the Baltic provinces nearly all the land belonged to the German landlords , who either farmed the land themselves, with hired laborers, or let it in small farms.

Only one quarter of the peasants were farmers; the remainder were mere laborers. The situation of the former serf-proprietors was also unsatisfactory. Accustomed to the use of compulsory labor, they failed to adapt to the new conditions. The millions of rubles of redemption money received from the crown was spent without any real or lasting agricultural improvements having been effected.

The forests were sold, and the only prosperous landlords were those who exacted rack-rents for the land without which the peasants could not live upon their allotments. There was an increase of wealth among the few, but along with this a general impoverishment of the mass of the people, and the peculiar institution of the mir—framed on the principle of community of ownership and occupation of the land--, the effect was not conducive to the growth of individual effort.

In November , however, the emperor Nicholas II promulgated a provisional order permitting the peasants to become freeholders of allotments made at the time of emancipation, all redemption dues being remitted. This measure, which was endorsed by the third Duma in an act passed on 21 December , is calculated to have far-reaching and profound effects on the rural economy of Russia. Thirteen years previously the government had endeavored to secure greater fixity and permanence of tenure by providing that at least twelve years must elapse between every two redistributions of the land belonging to a mir amongst those entitled to share in it.

The order of November had provided that the various strips of land held by each peasant should be merged into a single holding; the Duma, however, on the advice of the government, left this to the future, as an ideal that could only gradually be realized. Censorship was heavy-handed until the reign of Alexander II, but it never went away. Fyodor Dostoyevsky , for example, ridiculed the St. Petersburg newspapers, such as Golos and Peterburgskii Listok, which he accused of publishing trifles and distracting readers from the pressing social concerns of contemporary Russia through their obsession with spectacle and European popular culture.

Educational standards were very low in the Russian Empire. By , the level of literacy among male peasants ranged from 1 to 12 percent and 20 to 25 percent for urban men.

Literacy among women was very low. The rates were highest for the nobility 84 to 87 percent , merchants over 75 percent , then the workers and peasants. Serfs were the least literate. In every group, women were far less literate than men. By contrast in Western Europe, urban men had about a 50 percent literacy rate. The Orthodox hierarchy was suspicious of education — they saw no religious need whatever for literacy.

The accession in of Alexander I — was widely welcomed as an opening to fresh liberal ideas from the European Enlightenment. Many reforms were promised, but few were actually carried out before , when he turned his attention to foreign affairs and personal religion and ignored reform issues.

Modernization of government required much larger numbers, but that in turn required an educational system that could provide suitable training. Russia lacked that, and for university education young men went to Western Europe. The Army and the church had their own training programs, narrowly focused on their particular needs. The long-term plan was for a university in every region, a secondary school in every major city, upgraded primary schools, and — for the largest number of students —a parish school for every two parishes.

By , the national government operated six universities, forty-eight secondary state schools, and improved primary schools. Highly qualified teachers arrived from exile in France, where they fled the revolution. Exiled Jesuits set up elite boarding schools until their order was expelled in At the highest level, universities were set up on the German model in Kazan, Kharkov, St.

Petersburg , Vilna and Dorpat, while the relatively young Imperial Moscow University was expanded. The higher forms of education were reserved for a very small elite, with only a few hundred students at the universities by and in the secondary schools. There were no schools open to girls. Tsar Nicholas I was a reactionary who wanted to neutralize foreign ideas, especially those he ridiculed as "pseudo-knowledge. He raised academic standards, improved facilities, and opened the admission doors a bit wider.

Nicholas tolerated Uvarov's achievements until , then reversed his innovations. By there were 17, university students, and over 30, were enrolled in specialized technical institutes.

The students were conspicuous in Moscow and St. Petersburg as a political force typically at the forefront of demonstrations and disturbances.

Russian Empire The Russian Empire [lower-alpha 1] was an empire that extended across Eurasia and North America from , following the end of the Great Northern War , until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of Greater coat of arms. S nami Bog! Bozhe, Tsarya khrani! Russian Empire Former territories, protectorates and sphere of influence.

Prime Minister. Main articles: History of Russia and Territorial changes of Russia. Main article: Foreign policy of the Russian Empire. Main article: History of Russia — Further information: Government reforms of Alexander II of Russia and Russia—United Kingdom relations.

Flag of the Russian Empire for "Celebrations" from to The Imperial Standard of the Tsar, used from to Previous versions of the black eagle on gold background were used as far back as Peter the Great's time.

Main articles: Causes of World War I , Eastern Front World War I , and October Revolution. Further information: Eastern Orthodoxy by country. Main article: Geography of Russia. See also: Russian colonization of the Americas and First Russian circumnavigation.

See also: Tsarist absolutism. Main article: State Council of Imperial Russia. Main article: State Duma of the Russian Empire. Main article: Russian Council of Ministers. Main article: Governing Senate. Further information: History of the administrative division of Russia. Main article: Judicial system of the Russian Empire. Main article: Baltic governorates. Main articles: Christianity in Russia , Islam in Russia , Roman Catholicism in Russia , and History of the Jews in Russia.

Main article: Military history of the Russian Empire. See also: Russo-Swedish Wars , Russo-Turkish Wars , Russo-Persian Wars , Russo-Polish Wars , Russo-Japanese War , and Russo-Circassian War. See also: History of Russian culture , Russian literature , Russian opera , Technology in the Russian Empire , and Cinema of the Russian Empire. Main articles: Russian serfdom and Emancipation reform of Rossiyskaya Imperiya. From to , the Russian Empire occupied all territories of the present-day Russian Federation, with the exception of the present-day Kaliningrad Oblast , Kuril Islands , and Tuva.

In Russia lost Southern Sakhalin to Japan, but in the Empire established a protectorate over Tuva. An ukaz of gave the governors the right to report secretly on the qualifications of candidates for the office of justice of the peace. In Alexander III abolished the election of justices of the peace, except in certain large towns and some outlying parts of the Empire, and greatly restricted the right of trial by jury.

The confusion of the judicial and administrative functions was introduced again by the appointment of officials as judges. In the third Duma restored the election of justices of the peace. The Lutheran Church was the dominant faith of the Baltic Provinces , of Ingria , and of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Fundamental Laws , "Chapter One On the Essence of Supreme Sovereign Power, Article 7. International Studies Quarterly. JSTOR Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.

December ISSN X. Archived from the original on 17 September Retrieved 11 September Swain says, "The first government to be formed after the February Revolution of had, with one exception, been composed of liberals. Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. ISBN Archived from the original on 19 September Retrieved 20 June The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd.

Indiana UP. Archived from the original on 10 September In pictures: Russian Empire in colour photos Archived 20 August at the Wayback Machine , BBC News Magazine, March Brian Catchpole, A Map History of Russia pp 8—31; Martin Gilbert, Atlas of Russian history pp 33— Brian Catchpole, A Map History of Russia p Pipes, Richard Russia under the Old Regime. New York: Scribner. James Cracraft, The Revolution of Peter the Great Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great Philip Longworth and John Charlton, The Three Empresses: Catherine I, Anne and Elizabeth of Russia Isabel De Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great Yale University Press, John T.

Alexander, Autocratic politics in a national crisis: the Imperial Russian government and Pugachev's revolt, — Robert K. Massie, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a woman Catherine II. Leonid Ivan Strakhovsky, Alexander I of Russia: the man who defeated Napoleon Baykov, Alexander. Bruce Lincoln , Nicholas I, emperor and autocrat of all the Russians Anatole Gregory Mazour, The first Russian revolution, the Decembrist movement, its origins, development, and significance Stein Dowling , p.

David Marshall Lang , The last years of the Georgian monarchy, — Stephen R. Burant, "The January Uprising of in Poland: Sources of Disaffection and the Arenas of Revolt. Olga E. Maiorova, "War as Peace: The Trope of War in Russian Nationalist Discourse during the Polish Uprising of Norman Davies : God's Playground : A History of Poland OUP, vol.

Material history review. Canada Science and Technology Museum, , p46 CRWflags. Ivanov argues, that Russia has changed her official flag in Edvard Radzinsky, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar Baten, Jörg A History of the Global Economy. From to the Present.

Cambridge University Press. David Moon, The abolition of serfdom in Russia — Longman, Hugh Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire — , pp — Charles Lowe, Alexander III of Russia online Archived 18 January at the Wayback Machine. Robert F. Byrnes, Pobedonostsev: His Life and Thought David Schimmelpenninck Van Der Oye, "Russian foreign policy, " in D. Lieven, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia vol 2 pp Seton Watson, The Russian Empire , pp —44 — Barbara Jelavich, St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, — pp Ascher, The Revolution of A Short History pp — Sidney Harcave, First blood: the Russian Revolution of ch 1.

Robert D. Warth, Nicholas II: the life and reign of Russia's last monarch Gregory L. Freeze, ed. Lieven, Cambridge history of Russia, Hugh Seton-Watson, The Decline of Imperial Russia, — pp Oliver H.

Radkey, "An Alternative to Bolshevism: The Program of Russian Social Revolutionism. Richard Cavendish, "The Bolshevik-Menshevik split November 16th, Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Tsar and His Family p. Alexander Rabinowitch Geoffrey Swain Martin Gilbert, Routledge Atlas of Russian History 4th ed. Valerii L. Stepanov, "Revisiting Russian Conservatism," Russian Studies in History Alexander M.

Martin, Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I Bertram D. Wolfe Revolution and Reality. Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire Archived 31 March at the Wayback Machine , Chapter 1, Article 7.

Walter Sperling, "Building a Railway, Creating Imperial Space: 'Locality,' 'Region,' 'Russia,' 'Empire' as Political Arguments in Post-Reform Russia," Ab Imperio Issue 2, pp. Sarah Searight, "Russian railway penetration of Central Asia," Asian Affairs June 23 2 pp. Distribution of the population by faiths and regions ] in Russian. Archived from the original on 24 October David R.

Stone, A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya Grebenkin, "The Disintegration of the Russian Army in Factors and Actors in the Process. Boris N.

Hoch, Serfdom and social control in Russia: Petrovskoe, a village in Tambov David Moon, The Russian Peasantry — The World the Peasants Made Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia: from the ninth to the nineteenth century Orlando Figes, "The Peasantry" in Vladimir IUrevich Cherniaev, ed. Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, CS1 maint: extra text: authors list link Steven Hoch, "Did Russia's Emancipated Serfs Really Pay Too Much for Too Little Land? Statistical Anomalies and Long-Tailed Distributions".

Slavic Review 63 2 pp. Steven Nafziger, "Serfdom, emancipation, and economic development in Tsarist Russia" Working paper, Williams College, Worobec, Peasant Russia: family and community in the post-emancipation period Louise McReynolds, News under Russia's Old Regime: The Development of a Mass-Circulation Press Dianina, Katia Petersburg Arcade".

Slavic Review. Mironov, Boris N. History of Education Quarterly. Franklin A. Walker, "Enlightenment and religion in Russian education in the reign of Tsar Alexander I. Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Russian Identities: A Historical Survey pp — Stephen Woodburn, "Reaction Reconsidered: Education and the State in Russia, — Hans Rogger, Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution — p Strauss, Johann.

In: Murphey, Rhoads editor. Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: Recording the Imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Rule Volume 18 of Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies. Routledge, 7 July ISBN , Google Books PT Ascher, Abraham.

Russia: A History 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hosking, Geoffrey. Russia and the Russians: A History 2nd ed. Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Kamenskii, Aleksandr B. In the early 18th century among the European states, Russia was a newcomer, and the title of its sovereign — the Tsar — was somewhat hard to comprehend for the Europeans.

In Europe, the rights to grant titles such as counts and princes belonged to Emperors. Finally, Tsar Peter modified Russian state institutions.

In , he created the Governing Senate — a clear gesture of homage to the Senate of the Roman Empire. The Russian Senate was a council of high-ranked civil servants and military commanders that had the right to make state decisions in absence of the Tsar himself. Later, in , the creation of centralized state ministries, called the Collegiums, began. So, by , all preparations were made to announce the new status of the Russian state and its sovereign. How did it happen? The creation of the Russian Empire was announced on October 22nd, , simultaneously with the celebration of the Treaty of Nystad signed between the Tsardom of Russia and the Swedish Empire on 10 September that ended the Great Northern War with the decisive victory of Russia.

According to the Treaty, Sweden recognized the transfer of Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and Southeast Finland to Russia. Now, this accolade, by all means, belonged to Russia. On October 20th, Prince Alexander Menshikov announced this decision to Peter himself, who, reportedly, refused to accept the title repeatedly, but finally gave his consent.

On October 22nd, a gala church service was held in the Old Trinity Cathedral, St. The coat of arms of the Russian Empire was the two-headed eagle with the royal regalia. The state flag was a cloth with white, blue, and red horizontal stripes. The series of wars waged by Peter the Great were aimed to address the national logistical problems, chiefly that of the Russian Empire struggling to gain access to the seas.

It would not be possible to overcome the technical and economic backwardness of the country without sea ports and fleets, and these would also help to eliminate the political and economic blockades on the part of Western European countries and Turkey. As a result of the expansive and, at times, brutal, control over the state by Peter the Great, and then continued by the influential Catherine II, the Russian Empire expanded to an area of In the 18th Century, it included the Baltic, Right-Bank Ukraine , Belarus , parts of Poland , Bessarabia, and the Northern Caucasus.

From the 19th Century on, Finland , the rest of the Caucasus, Kazakhstan , Central Asia, and Pamir were also added. According to an census, the Empire had attained a population of The Russian language was declared as the official language nonetheless, and made compulsory in all public institutions. The capital of the Empire was St. Petersburg, a city built by Peter the Great in the Finnish Bay. In the course of its history, the Russian Empire of the second half of the 19th Century passed from a feudal socioeconomic foundation to one grounded in capitalism.

At the beginning of 20th Century, economic and social tensions in the Russian Empire, seriously weakened by an unsuccessful involvement in the First Wold War, paved the path for revolutionary conditions to arise. By the Autumn of , rebellious moods were aggravated amid extremely deteriorating political situations in the country.

Russian Empire - Wikiwand

The Russian Empire[b], commonly referred to as Imperial Russia, was a historical empire that extended across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War, until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917.[5][6] The third-largest empire in history, at one point stretching over three ...

The Russian Empire. Russia in the 19th century was both a multilingual and a multireligious empire. Only about half the population was at the same time Russian by and Orthodox by religion. The Orthodox were to some extent privileged in comparison with the other Christians; all Christians enjoyed a higher status than Muslims; and the latter were not so as the Jews. The Russian Empire. Russia in the 19th century was both a multilingual and a multireligious empire. Only about half the population was at the same time Russian by and Orthodox by religion. The Orthodox were to some extent privileged in comparison with the other Christians; all Christians enjoyed a higher status than Muslims; and the latter were not so as the Jews. amirsariaslan.net has a large collection of Russian Empire era maps which are organized by location. There are a variety of maps available, gubernia, uyezd, or city maps, maps highlighting parishes, etc. To for maps, click on the Map Selection tab and then by region in the folders on the left hand side.

5. Background and Initial Formation

The Russian Empire [lower-alpha 1] was an empire that extended across Eurasia and North America fromfollowing the end of the Great Northern Waruntil the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution Cobie Smulders Leaked The third-largest empire in history, at its greatest extent stretching over three continents, Europe, Asia, and North America, the Russian Empire was surpassed in size only by the British and Mongol empires.

The rise of the Russian Empire coincided with the decline of neighboring rival powers: the Swedish Empirethe Polish—Lithuanian CommonwealthPersia and the Ottoman Empire. It played a major role in — in defeating Napoleon 's ambitions to control Europe and expanded to the west and south. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from until Its matrilineal branch of patrilineal German descent, the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanovruled from to the end of the empire.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean, and into Alaska and Northern California in America on the east. Like all empires, it featured great diversity in terms of economies, ethnicities, languages, and religion. There were many dissident elements that launched numerous rebellions and assassinations over the centuries.

In the 19th century, they were closely watched by the imperial secret policeand thousands were exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire was predominantly agricultural, with low productivity on large estates worked by Russian peasants, known as serfswho were tied to the land in a feudal arrangement. The serfs were freed inbut the landowning aristocratic class kept control. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways and factories.

From the 10th through the 17th centuries, the land was ruled by a noble class, the boyarsand subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III — laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged. He tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horderenovated the Moscow Kremlinand laid the foundations of the Russian state.

Emperor Peter the Great — fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power. He moved the capital from Moscow to the new model city of St. Petersburgwhich featured much European design. Empress Catherine the Great reigned — presided over a golden age; she expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Great's policy of modernization along Western European lines.

His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. That connection by led to Russia's entry into the First World War on the side of France, the United Kingdom, and Serbiaagainst the German, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as an absolute monarchy on principles of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality until the Revolution of A de jure constitutional monarchy was established.

The empire collapsed during the February Revolution oflargely as a result of massive failures resulting Robin Scherbatsky Naked its participation in the First World War.

The royal family was executed in by the Bolshevikswho imprisoned or executed Elhartista of the aristocratic class before seizing power. Billard Anal the Empire was not officially proclaimed by Tsar Peter I until after the Treaty of Nystadsome historians argue that it originated either when Ivan III of Russia conquered Veliky Novgorod inor when Ivan the Terrible conquered the Khanate of Kazan in According to another point of view, the term Tsardomwhich was used after the coronation of Ivan IV inwas already a contemporary Russian word for empire.

Much of Russia's expansion occurred in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian colonization of the Pacific in the midth century, the Russo-Polish War —67 that incorporated left-bank Ukraine, and the Russian conquest of Siberia.

Poland was divided in the — era, with much of its Brutale Transen and population being taken under Russian rule. Peter I the Great — played a major role in introducing Russia to the European state system. While the vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West. The class of kholopsclose in status to slaveryremained a major institution in Russia untilwhen Peter converted household kholops into house serfsthus including them in poll taxation.

Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs earlier in They were largely tied to the land in a feudal sense Russian Empire the late nineteenth century. Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Russian Empire. His attention then turned to the North. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport, except at Archangel on the White Seawhere the harbor was frozen for nine months a year.

Access to the Baltic Sea was blocked by Swedenwhose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a "window to the sea" led him to make a secret alliance in with Saxonythe Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealthand Denmark against Sweden; they conducted the Great Northern War. The war ended in when an exhausted Sweden asked for peace with Russia. As a result, Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of Gay Tgp Gulf of Finlandsecuring access to the sea.

There he built Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburgon the Neva Riverto replace Moscow, which had long been Russia's cultural center. This relocation expressed his intent to adopt European elements in his empire. Many of the government and other major buildings were designed with Italianate influence. Inhe turned his aspirations as first Russian monarch toward increasing Russian influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of the Extrem Perverse Porno Safavid Persians.

He made Astrakhan the centre of military efforts against Persia, and waged the first full-scale Russian Empire against them in — Peter reorganized his government based on the latest political models of the time, moulding Russia into an absolutist state.

The countryside was divided into new provinces and districts. Peter told the Senate that its mission was to Lowfire Nackt taxes, and tax revenues tripled over the course of his reign. Meanwhile, all vestiges of local self-government were removed.

Peter continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service for all nobles. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a Marjorie Film Francais of the state.

Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Holy Synodled by a government official. Peter died inleaving an unsettled succession. After a short reign of his widow Catherine Ithe crown passed to empress Anna. She slowed down the reforms and led a successful war against the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in a significant weakening of the Ottoman vassal Crimean Khanatea long-term Russian adversary.

The discontent over the dominant positions of Baltic Germans in Russian politics resulted in Peter I's daughter Elizabeth being put on the Russian throne. Elizabeth supported the arts, architecture and the sciences for example with the foundation of the Moscow University.

But she did not carry out significant structural reforms. Her reign, which lasted nearly 20 years, is also known for her involvement in the Seven Years' War. It was successful for Russia militarily, but fruitless politically.

Catherine the Great was a German princess who married Peter III, the German heir to the Russian crown. She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great. She also removed the tax on beards, instituted by Peter the Great. Catherine the Great extended Russian political control over the lands of the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth. Her actions included the support of the Targowica Confederation.

A major peasant uprising took place inafter Catherine legalised the selling of serfs separate from land. Inspired by Cossack named Yemelyan Pugachevand proclaiming "Hang all the landlords! Instead of imposing the traditional punishment of drawing and quartering, Catherine issued secret instructions that the executioners should carry the death sentences quickly and with a minimum of suffering, as part of her effort to introduce compassion into the law.

These gestures of compassion garnered Catherine much positive attention from Europe in the Enlightenment age. But the specter of revolution and disorder continued to haunt her and her successors.

Bercer Anglais order to ensure continued support from the nobility, which was essential to the survival of her government, 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 the nobility received with disgust.

Catherine successfully waged war against the Ottoman Empire and advanced Russia's southern boundary to the Black Sea. Then, by plotting with the rulers of Austria and Prussiashe incorporated territories of the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Partitions of Polandpushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Kate Moss Parfum Dm. Russia had signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Georgians to protect Russian Empire against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains.

As part of this and her own political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war against Persia in after they had invaded Georgia; Hans Castorp Zauberberg, she established Russian rule over it and expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus. By the time of her death inCatherine's Russian Empire policy had developed Russia as a major European power.

Russia was in a continuous state of financial crisis. The budget allocated 46 percent to the military, 20 percent to government Grzegorz Ekiert activities, 12 percent to administration, and nine percent for the Imperial Court in St. The deficit required borrowing, primarily from bankers in Amsterdam ; five percent of the budget was allocated to debt payments.

Paper money was issued to pay for expensive wars, thus causing inflation. As a result of its spending, Russia developed a large and well-equipped army, a very Digimon Hentai Comic and complex bureaucracy, and a court that rivaled those of Paris and London.

But the government was living far beyond its means, and 18th-century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country". In French Emperor Napoleonfollowing a dispute with Chikeko Katha Alexander Ilaunched an invasion of Russia. It was catastrophic for France, as his army was decimated through the winter.

In the harsh and bitter Russian winterthousands of French troops were ambushed and killed by peasant guerrilla fighters. After Russia and its allies defeated Napoleon, Alexander became known as the 'saviour of Europe'. He presided over the redrawing of the map of Europe at the Congress of Viennawhich ultimately made Alexander the monarch of Congress Poland.

Although the Russian Empire played a leading political role in the next century, thanks to its defeat of Napoleonic France, its retention of serfdom precluded economic progress of any significant degree. As Western European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial RevolutionRussia began to lag ever farther behind, creating Himynamestee Nude weaknesses for the Empire seeking to play a role as a great power.

This status concealed the inefficiency of its government, the isolation of its people, and its economic and social backwardness. Following the defeat of Napoleon, Alexander I had been ready to discuss constitutional reforms, but though a few were introducedno Sex At Work changes Porn Hollander attempted. The liberal tsar was replaced by his younger brother, Nicholas I —who at the Russian Empire of his reign was confronted with an uprising.

The background of this revolt lay in the Napoleonic Warswhen a number of well-educated Russian officers travelled in Europe Russian Empire the course of military campaigns, where their exposure to the liberalism of Western Europe encouraged them to seek change on their return to autocratic Russia. The result was the Decembrist revolt Decemberthe work of a small circle of liberal nobles and army officers who wanted to install Nicholas' brother as a constitutional monarch.

But the revolt was easily crushed, leading Nicholas to turn away from the modernization program begun by Peter the Great and champion the doctrine Lesben In Kassel Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.