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Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825
1453 Through the Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) The Time of Troubles to the First Romanovs (1598-1682) Peter the Great and His Legacy (1682-1762) The Age of Catherine the Great (1762-1801) The Reign of Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825)

                                     

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History
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Personalities
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  Russia Events
Engagement Symbol The Building of the Kremlin, 1156–1516
Russia Symbol Ivan IV Takes a Wife, 1547
Engagement Symbol Taking of Kazan, 1552
Russia Symbol Printing of the First Book in Moscow, 1564
Russia Symbol Oprichnina, 1564
  World Events
World Symbol
 The Golden Horde, 1300s
World Symbol
 Ottoman Capture of Constantinople (Istanbul), 1453
Engagement Symbol The Establishment of the Safavid Dynasty, 1502
World Symbol
 The Protestant Reformation, 1517
Engagement Symbol The Jenkinson Mission to West Asia, 1558
Special Features


Russia's Globalization:
A Key

Events marked Russia Symbol are specific to Muscovy/Russia's internal development.
Those marked World Symbol are important world historical or cultural events.
Engagement Symbol indicates specific points of sociocultural or military engagement between Muscovy/Russia and foreign powers or individuals.



Russia Symbol   Ivan the Terrible's Retreat

  
Ivan the Terrible's Retreat
Photographic Services & Permissions                                                        
 

Jacob Ulfeldt (d. 1593)
Hodoeporicon Ruthenicum [A Ruthenian (i.e., Muscovite) Journey]
Frankfurt: M. Becker, imprensis I. T. & I. I. de Bry, 1608
NYPL, Rare Books Division

Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda was a fortified palace complex built by Ivan IV, "the Terrible" (r. 1533–84). It remained a favorite residence.

Jacob Ulfeldt's unsuccessful mission to Ivan's court on behalf of the Danish crown prompted him to write a very unflattering (and scattered) portrait of his delegation's off-handed treatment by the tsar, and the hardships they endured while in Muscovy, and of the perceived immorality and coarseness of society at all levels.