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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 Revolt of the Musketeers (Strel’tsy)
Engagement Symbol The Battle of Poltava—Peter's Decisive Battle
Russia Symbol The Creation of the Holy Synod
Russia Symbol The Bironovshchina, Empress Anna's Reign of Terror
Engagement Symbol The Seven Years’ War (1756–63)
  World Events
World Symbol
 The Spread of Free Masonry
World Symbol
 Publication of the Encyclopédie
World Symbol
 The Treaty of Paris
World Symbol
 The Ottomans Defeated in Central Europe


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 Empress Anna
NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

Empress Anna Ioannovna, who reigned from 1730 to 1740, appointed her German “favorite,” Ernst-Ioann Biron, the Duke of Courland and made him her closest adviser. Thus, her decade in power came to be known as the Bironovshchina, or the time of Biron. The man was cruel and tyrannical, and many contemporaries and scholars regard this epoch as a reign of terror. Suspected enemies among high-ranking officials were imprisoned and executed, and 20,000 people were exiled to Siberia. Before Anna died, she appointed Biron the regent for her great-nephew, Ivan VI (r. 1740–41), but because of the hatred he had earned, he was ousted from power after a mere twenty-two days and then made his own long trek to Siberia.