Peter the Great
Peter the Great, Peter I or Peter Alexeyevich ruled the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death in 1725, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars, he expanded the Tsardom into a much larger empire that became a major European power and laid the groundwork for the Russian navy after capturing ports at Azov and the Baltic Sea, he led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific and based on the Enlightenment. Peter's reforms made a lasting impact on Russia, many institutions of Russian government trace their origins to his reign, he is known for founding and developing the city of Saint Petersburg, which remained the capital of Russia until 1917. The imperial title of Peter the Great was the following: By the grace of God, the most excellent and great sovereign prince Pyotr Alekseevich the ruler of all the Russias: of Moscow, of Kiev, of Vladimir, of Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan and Tsar of Siberia, sovereign of Pskov, great prince of Smolensk, Yugorsk, Vyatsky and others, sovereign and great prince of Novgorod Nizovsky lands, Chernigovsky, of Ryazan, of Rostov, Belozersky, Udorsky and the sovereign of all the northern lands, the sovereign of the Iverian lands, of the Kartlian and Georgian Kings, of the Kabardin lands, of the Circassian and Mountain princes and many other states and lands western and eastern here and there and the successor and sovereign and ruler.
Named after the apostle, described as a newborn as "with good health, his mother's black, vaguely Tatar eyes, a tuft of auburn hair", from an early age Peter's education was put in the hands of several tutors, most notably Nikita Zotov, Patrick Gordon, Paul Menesius. On 29 January 1676, Tsar Alexis died, leaving the sovereignty to Peter's elder half-brother, the weak and sickly Feodor III of Russia. Throughout this period, the government was run by Artamon Matveev, an enlightened friend of Alexis, the political head of the Naryshkin family and one of Peter's greatest childhood benefactors; this position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family and Naryshkin family over who should inherit the throne. Peter's other half-brother, Ivan V of Russia, was next in line for the throne, but he was chronically ill and of infirm mind; the Boyar Duma chose the 10-year-old Peter to become Tsar with his mother as regent. This arrangement was brought before the people of Moscow, as ancient tradition demanded, was ratified.
Sophia Alekseyevna, one of Alexis' daughters from his first marriage, led a rebellion of the Streltsy in April–May 1682. In the subsequent conflict some of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered, including Matveev, Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence; the Streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys and their allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint Tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as the senior. Sophia exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. A large hole was cut in the back of the dual-seated throne used by Peter. Sophia would sit behind the throne and listen as Peter conversed with nobles, while feeding him information and giving him responses to questions and problems; this throne can be seen in the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow. Peter was not concerned that others ruled in his name, he engaged in such pastimes as sailing, as well as mock battles with his toy army. Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689.
The marriage was a failure, ten years Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union. By the summer of 1689, Peter age 17, planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns against the Crimean Khanate in an attempt to stop devastating Crimean Tatar raids into Russia's southern lands; when she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with the leaders of the Streltsy, who continually aroused disorder and dissent. Peter, warned by the Streltsy, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable monastery of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. Sophia was overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Foy de la Neuville records that Sophia requested influential members of Peter's family, notably her aunts Tatyana and Anna, to mediate with him. Peter forced Sophia to enter a convent, where she gave up her name and her position as a member of the royal family. Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs.
Power was instead exercised by Natalya Naryshkina. It was only. Formally, Ivan V remained a co-ruler with Peter. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696. Peter was 24 years old. Peter grew to be tall as an a
Monastery of the Holy Mandylion, Moscow
The Monastery of the Holy Mandylion or Zaikonospassky Monastery is an Orthodox monastery on the Nikolskaya Street in Kitai-gorod, just one block away from the Kremlin. It was founded in 1600 by Boris Godunov. At first called "Saviour the Old", the monastery acquired its present quaint name which alludes to its location and means "the Saviour behind the icon shops". In the late 17th century, the monastery's learned administrators such as Symeon of Polotsk and Sylvester Medvedev had it transformed into a hotbed of enlightenment. Between 1687 and 1814, it was home to the Slavic Greek Latin Academy, Russia's first secondary education establishment. There is a memorial plaque in honor of Mikhail Lomonosov. After Lomonosov founded the Moscow University in 1755, the academy declined in importance; the surviving buildings include the Baroque katholikon of the Holy Mandylion, several 17th-century chambers as well as a former school building which dates to 1822. After the October Revolution, the monastery's distinctive belltower was pulled down and the remaining buildings were given to the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives.
The Russian Orthodox Church had the Zaikonospassky Monastery reopened in 1992. It has been involved in litigation with the institute's successor over ownership of these assets. In 2014, the belltower was rebuilt to the same design. Karion Istomin Symeon of Polotsk
Cathedral of the Archangel
The Cathedral of the Archangel is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It is located in Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia between the Great Kremlin Palace and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, it was the main necropolis of the Tsars of Russia until the relocation of the capital to St. Petersburg, it was constructed between 1505 and 1508 under the supervision of an Italian architect Aloisio the New on the spot of an older cathedral, built in 1333. Now it serves as a part of Moscow Kremlin Museums. A precursor to the present cathedral was built in 1250, was replaced with a stone church in 1333 by Grand Duke Ivan Kalita, who would become the first Russian monarch to be buried in the church. In 1505, Grand Duke Ivan III in the midst of major renovation project for the Kremlin, turned his attention to the church, as in the case of the rebuilding of the Assumption Cathedral two decades earlier, turned to architects from Italy for assistance. An Italian, Lamberti Aloisio da Mantagnana was invited to Moscow, ground was broken for a new cathedral on 21 May 1505.
Ivan died in the autumn of the same year, was buried in the still unfinished building. Work on the cathedral was completed by the end of 1508, but it was not formally consecrated until 8 November 1509; the new building incorporated many elements of the Italian Renaissance, numerous of these details disappeared during repairs and restorations. The interior walls were not painted with frescoes until the 1560s. A fresco of Lazar of Serbia was painted in 1564. In addition, inside the cathedral are the depictions of Saint Sava, Stefan Nemanja and Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos attesting to Ivan the Terrible's connection to his Serbian roots, his mother Elena Glinskaya was a daughter of Prince Vasili Lvovich Glinsky of Lithuania and Serb Princess Ana Jakšić. The cathedral was damaged in the 1737 Kremlin Fire, was further threatened by the construction of the predecessor of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which led to soil subsidence, caused a slight tilt in the orientation of the walls. Victories of the Russian military were celebrated in the Cathedral of the Archangel.
All Russian tsars and grand princes were buried within the cathedral until the time of Peter the Great, along with many empresses and princes of the blood, with the sole exception of Boris Godunov. After the royal necropolis was moved to Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, only Tsar Peter II, who happened to die in Moscow, was interred here. There are 54 burials in the cathedral, with 46 ornamented whitestone tombstones and glazed cases made of bronze. Of note is the tomb of Tsarevich Demetrius, the son of Ivan the Terrible, was buried there in the early 17th century and was canonized. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, the cathedral was damaged during the fighting. Afterwards, it was closed by the Bolshevik regime. During the 1950s, along with the other surviving churches in the Moscow Kremlin, was preserved as a museum. A large portion of the church’s treasures were either transferred to the Kremlin Armory Museum, or sold overseas. After 1992, the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and occasional religious services resumed.
Compared with the other two major Kremlin cathedrals, the Archangel Cathedral is different in style, despite maintaining a traditional layout. It echoes the layout of the Assumption Cathedral in its use of five domes (representing Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists. However, the exterior ornamentation its characteristic semi-circular niches with shell-shaped ornaments and gateways with arc-shaped frames made of white limestone, which are coated with paint and decorated with floral ornaments point to the Italian Renaissance influence; the interior of the cathedral, was constructed in a manner typical for Russian churches. The large iconostasis of the cathedral of the archangel, 13 meters high, dates from 1678-81; the icon of Archangel Michael, the oldest in the iconostasis, is believed to have been created for Princess Eudoxia, the wife of Dmitri Donskoi to the memory the victory in the Battle of Kulikovo. The wall frescoes date to the 17th centuries; some were painted by Yakov of Kazan, Stepan of Ryazan, Joseph Vladimirov and others between 1652 and 1666.
Klein, Mina. The Kremlin: Citadel of History. MacMillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-750830-7 Tropkin, Alexander; the Moscow Kremlin: history of Russia's unique monument. Publishing House "Russkaya Zhizn". ASIN: B0010XM7BQ Home Page Satellite photo of the Cathedral of the Archangel
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia, or the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year; the period includes the upheavals of the transition from the Rurik to the Romanov dynasties, many wars with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire as well as the Russian conquest of Siberia, leading up to the ground-changing reign of Peter the Great, who took power in 1689 and transformed the Tsardom into a major European power. During the Great Northern War, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire after victory over Sweden in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus' and the Russian land, a new form of its name, Rusia or Russia and became common in the 15th century. In the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev mentions "the sceptre of Russian lordship".
In the following century Russia co-existed with the old name Rus' and appeared in an inscription on the western portal of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl, on the icon case of the Theotokos of Vladimir, in the work by Maximus the Greek, the Russian Chronograph written by Dosifei Toporkov in 1516–22 and in other sources. In 1547, Ivan IV assumed the title of “Tsar and Grand Duke of all Rus'” and was crowned on 16 January, thereby turning the Grand Duchy of Moscow into Tsardom of Russia, or "the Great Russian Tsardom", as it was called in the coronation document, by Constantinople Patriarch Jeremiah II and in numerous official texts, but the state remained referred to as Moscovia throughout Europe, predominantly in its Catholic part, though this Latin term was never used in Russia; the two names "Russia" and "Moscovia" appear to have co-existed as interchangeable during the 16th and throughout the 17th century with different Western maps and sources using different names, so that the country was called "Russia, or Moscovia" or "Russia, popularly known as Moscovia".
In England of the 16th century, it was known both as Muscovy. Such notable Englishmen as Giles Fletcher, author of the book Of the Russe Common Wealth, Samuel Collins, author of The Present State of Russia, both of whom visited Russia, were familiar with the term Russia and used it in their works. So did numerous other authors, including John Milton, who wrote A brief history of Moscovia and of other less-known countries lying eastward of Russia, published posthumously, starting it with the words: "The Empire of Moscovia, or as others call it, Russia..."In the Russian Tsardom, the word Russia replaced the old name Rus' in official documents, though the names Rus' and Russian land were still common and synonymous to it, appeared in the form Great Russia, more typical of the 17th century, whereas the state was known as Great-Russian Tsardom. According to prominent historians like Alexander Zimin and Anna Khoroshkevich, the continuous use of the term Moscovia was a result of traditional habit and the need to distinguish between the Muscovite and the Lithuanian part of the Rus', as well as of the political interests of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which competed with Moscow for the western regions of the Rus'.
Due to the propaganda of the Commonwealth, as well as of the Jesuits, the term Moscovia was used instead of Russia in many parts of Europe where prior to the reign of Peter the Great there was a lack of direct knowledge of the country. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, the country was known under its own name, Russia or Rossia. Sigismund von Herberstein, ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor in Russia, used both Russia and Moscovia in his work on the Russian tsardom and noted: "The majority believes that Russia is a changed name of Roxolania. Muscovites refute this, saying that their country was called Russia". Pointing to the difference between Latin and Russian names, French captain Jacques Margeret, who served in Russia and left a detailed description of L’Empire de Russie of the early 17th century, presented to King Henry IV, stated that foreigners make "a mistake when they call them Muscovites and not Russians; when they are asked what nation they are, they respond'Russac', which means'Russians', when they are asked what place they are from, the answer is Moscow, Vologda and other cities".
The closest analogue of the Latin term Moscovia in Russia was “Tsardom of Moscow”, or “Moscow Tsardom”, used along with the name "Russia", sometimes in one sentence, as in the name of the 17th century Russian work On the Great and Glorious Russian Moscow State. By the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a major ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. Indeed, after Ivan III's marriage to Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the Moscow court adopted Byzantine terms, rituals and emblems such as the double-
Alexis of Russia
Aleksey Mikhailovich was the tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. His reign saw wars with Poland and Sweden, schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, the major Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin. At the time of his death Russia spanned 2,000,000,000 acres. Born in Moscow on 19 March 1629, the son of Tsar Michael and Eudoxia Streshneva, the sixteen year old Alexei acceded to the throne after his father's death on 12 July 1645. In August, the Tsar's mother died, following a pilgrimage to Sergiyev Posad he was crowned on 28 September in the Dormition Cathedral, he was committed to the care of his tutor Boris Morozov, a shrewd boyar open to Western ideas. Morozov's pursued a peaceful foreign policy, securing a truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and avoiding complications with the Ottoman Empire, his domestic policy aimed at limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing a useless and expensive court offices. On 17 January 1648 Morozov procured the marriage of the tsar with Maria Miloslavskaya, himself marrying her sister, ten days both daughters of Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky.
Morozov was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. In May 1648 Muscovites rose against his faction in the Salt Riot, the young Tsar was compelled to dismiss them and exile Boris to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Four months Boris secretly returned to Moscow to regain some of his power; the popular discontent demonstrated by the riot was responsible for Alexis' 1649 issuance of a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozhenie. In 1648, using the experience of creating regiments of the foreign system during the reign of his father, Alexis began reforming the army; the main direction of the reform was the mass creation of New Order Regiments: Reiters, Soldiers and Hussars. These regiments formed the backbone of the new army of Tsar Alexis. To fulfill the reform goals, a large number of European military specialists were hired for service; this became possible because of the end of the Thirty Years' War, which created a colossal market for military professionals in Europe. Throughout his reign, Alexei faced rebellions across Russia.
After resolving the 1648 Salt Riot Alexei faced rebellions in 1650 in the cities of Pskov and Great Novgorod. Alexei put down the Novgorod rebellion but was unable to subdue Pskov, was forced to promise the city amnesty in return for surrender; the Metropolitan Nikon distinguished himself at Great Novgorod and in 1651 became the Tsar's chief minister. By the 1660s, Alexei's wars with Poland and Sweden had put an increasing strain on the Russian economy and public finances. In response, Alexei's government had begun minting large numbers of copper coins in 1654 to increase government revenue but this led to a devaluation of the ruble and a severe financial crisis; as a result, angry Moscow residents revolted in the 1662 Copper Riot, put down violently. In 1669, the Cossacks along the Don in southern Russia erupted in rebellion; the rebellion was led by Stenka Razin, a disaffected Don Cossack who had captured the Russian terminus of Astrakhan. From 1670 to 1671, Razin seized multiple towns along the Volga River.
The turning point in his campaign was his failed siege of Simbirsk in October 1670. Razin was captured on the Don in April 1671, was drawn and quartered in Moscow. In 1651 Safavid troops attacked Russian fortifications in the North Caucasus; the main issue involved the expansion of a Russian garrison on the Koy Su River, as well as the construction of several new fortresses, in particular the one built on the Iranian side of the Terek River. The successful Safavid offensive resulted in the destruction of the Russian fortress and its garrison being expelled. In 1653 Alexis thinking about sending the Zaporozhian Cossacks decided to send an embassy to Persia for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. In August 1653 courtier Prince Ivan Lobanov-Rostov and steward Ivan Komynin traveled from Astrakhan to Isfahan. Shah Abbas II agreed to settle the conflict, stating that the conflict was initiated without his consent. In 1653 the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged from the Khmelnytsky Uprising, encouraged Alexei to attempt to annex the old Rus’ lands.
On 1 October 1653 a national assembly met at Moscow to sanction the war and find the means of carrying it out, in April 1654 the army was blessed by Nikon, elected patriarch in 1652. The campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted triumph, scores of towns, including the important fortress of Smolensk, fell into the hands of the Russians. Ukrainian Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky appealed to Tsar Alexei for protection from the Poles, the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought about Russian dominance of the Cossack Hetmanate in Left-Bank Ukraine. In the summer of 1655, a sudden invasion by Charles X of Sweden swept the Polish state out of existence, in what became known as the Deluge; the Russians, unopposed appropriated nearly everything, not occupied by the Swedes. When the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole grand-duchy of Lithuania was the least of the demands made by Alexei; however Alexei and the king of Sweden quarrelled over the apportionment of the spoils, at the end of May 1656, with encouragement by the Habsburg emperor and the other enemies of Sweden, Alexei declared war on Sweden.
Great things were expected by Russia of the Swedish war. Dorpat was taken. In the meantime Poland had so far recovered herself as to become a much mo
Mikhail of Vladimir
Mikhalko Yuryevich, Prince of Torchesk and Suzdal and Grand Prince of Kiev. Yuri Dolgoruky's eldest son by his second marriage, Mikhalko Yuryevich was removed from the Suzdal lands by his half-brother Andrei Bogolyubsky, who disliked his mother. From 1162 to 1169 he lived in Ostyor, a small town near Chernigov, but moved on to a town of Torchesk. Appointed by Andrei to rule Kiev upon the death of Gleb Yuriyevich in 1171, Mikhalko refused to take the throne and sent his younger brother Vsevolod to Kiev instead, he was besieged in Torchesk by another claimant to Kiev, prince Rurik Rostislavich, but concluded peace with him and was allowed to move his capital to Pereyaslavl. Next year, when Andrei invaded Southern Rus, he broke his ties with Rurik and swore allegiance to his brother. Upon Andrei's death, Mikhalko Yuryevich succeeded him in Vladimir, but the hostilities with boyars of Suzdal and Rostov, who felt neglected by the rise of Vladimir, forced him to leave for Chernigov; the citizens of Vladimir soon called upon Mikhalko Yuryevich to help them fight against Yaropolk, son of Rostislav Yuryevich.
He defeated this nephew of Andrei Bogolubsky's and regained the throne of Vladimir in 1175. Mikhalko died the next year and was succeeded by his brother Vsevolod
Agafya Grushetskaya
Agafya Semyonovna Grushetskaya - Gruszecki was a Russian noble, Tsaritsa of Russia as the first spouse of Tsar Feodor III of Russia who hailed from the Grushetsky - Gruszecki family. She was a daughter of his spouse Mariya Ivanovna Zaborovskaya, she could speak and write Polish and Latin and was well informed about the Western European life style. She could play harpsichord, she was described as beautiful with an easy going character. From 1677 she lived with Semyon Zaborovsky, who did not wish her to marry. In 1680, the tsar of the time, saw her during a religious procession: when she fainted after the sight of a witch in a religious theater play he rushed forward to support her, fell in love with her. Aware that her uncle did not wish her to marry, a traditional summon was proclaimed to all unmarried noble women to gather for Feodor to choose from, he chose her. On 18 July 1680, she married Feodor. Agafya shared the radical views of her spouse, she opposed the influence of the Miloslavsky party, led by her husband's mother and sister, supported Likhachev.
Her husband's relative Ivan Iljitj Miloslavskii exposed her to slander, which caused a conflict, was punished by Feodor. Her sisters were married to princes and her cousins were raised in rank by Feodor. Agafya has been described as an angelic tsarina and loyal to Feodor and the public's welfare, she was the first to advocate beard-shaving and the adoption of Western clothes at the Russian court. She herself was the first tsarina to wear a Western dress. On 11 July 1681, the Tsarina gave birth to her son, Tsarevich Ilya Fyodorovich, the expected heir to the throne. Agafya died as a consequence of the childbirth three days on 14 July, six days on 21 July, the nine-days-old Tsarevich died, she was deeply mourned by Feodor. Журнал «Наука и жизнь», № 1 2007 г. — Вознесенский некропль Кремля.. Л. Жданов. «Пётр и Софья». Биография.ру — биографическая энциклопедия. Красницкий А. И.. «Царица-полячка». 1902 г. Валерий Ярхо. «Друг царя, государственный преступник…» Сахаров А. “Пётр I ”
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Theodore (tsars)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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