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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)

                                     

Explore this Section:

  Russia Events
Russia Symbol Institutionalization of Serfdom
Engagement Symbol Annexation of Parts of Ukraine
Russia Symbol Reign of the Last Rurikid
Russia Symbol The Era of the False Dmitriis
Russia Symbol The Election of Mikhail Romanov
  World Events
Engagement Symbol
 Tsar Aleksei Appoints the First Russian Ambassador to China (1654)
Engagement Symbol The Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
World Symbol
 English Settlers Make Landfall (1620)
World Symbol Collapse of the Ming Dynasty (1644)


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.




















 

 


   The Election of Mikhail Romanov

  Patriarch Filaret of Moscow
NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

From 1598 to 1613, Russia experienced the aptly named Time of Troubles, a period of famine, peasant rebellion, a succession of tsars occupying the throne, and invasion by Poland and Sweden. In 1613, a zemskii sobor ("Council of the Land") was convened to elect a new tsar after the Second National Army had liberated Russia from the Poles and Swedes. The assembly deliberated for six weeks and decided on Mikhail Romanov (r. 1613–45), an innocent and pious sixteen-year-old boy. The Romanovs were the ideal family to begin the next dynasty for a variety of reasons: they were wealthy, decent, and enjoyed popularity among all classes; the head of the clan, Filaret (ca. 1553–1633), was in a Polish prison, which added the aura of a martyr and national hero; and the family was related to the previous dynasty through Anastasia Romanovna (1530–1560), the wife of Ivan IV, "the Terrible" (r. 1533–84).

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