Czars of the Russian Empire

Ivan The Great

Mar 14, 1472

Ivan The Great commissioned the building of a new cathedral as a symbol of Russian ascendance. He died in 1505

Ivan The Terrible

Mar 14, 1547

He was the first Russian ruler to be crowned formally as czar. He raised a force of 150,000 men and had his engineers create movable fortresses for the Siege of Kazan.They took Kazan after eight days of fighting which signaled the start of Russia's expansion into an empire. Ivan commissioned the building of St. Basil's Cathedral in 1555 to commemorate his victory. He weakend his empire by launching a series of foolish wars and killed his own son. Ivan died in 1584.

Mikhail Feodorovich

Feb 21, 1613

On Feb. 21, 1613, Mikhail Romanov was elected to the throne on the initiative of the boyars and with the approval of the Zemskii Sobor (National Assembly)

Sofia Alexeevna

May 29, 1682

During her ruling in the country there were some army reformations applied, more European habits were brought to the Russian people, some people started dressing by the European fashion.
In 1687, the first educational establishment opened in Russia: the Academy of Slavic, Greek and Latin Studies.

Peter The Great

Mar 17, 1696

In 1700 Peter The Great used force to take land on the Neva River from Sweden. In 1703 the construction of St. Petersburg began. In 1706 Peter The Great launched the first warship from St. Petersburg. In 1712 Peter proclaimed St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital. By 1714 St. Petersburg was still not the center of power.

Catherine The Great

Mar 17, 1762

Catherine annexed roughly 200,000 square miles of territory and transformed St. Petersburg by providing for hospitals, sanitation and schools.

Nicholas i

Mar 17, 1825

Nicholas strove to serve his country's best interests as he saw them, but his methods were dictatorial, paternalistic, and often inadequate.

Alexander ii

Mar 17, 1855

The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace, led by his trusted counsellor Prince Gorchakov. The country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war.

Alexander iii

Mar 13, 1881

He was highly conservative and reversed some of the liberal measures of his father, Alexander II. During Alexander's reign Russia fought no major wars, for which he was styled "The Peacemaker"

Nicholas ii

Nov 1, 1894

Under his rule, Russia was humiliatingly defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, which saw the almost total annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima.