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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:

The Age of Catherine the Great: A Summary of Russian History
Russia Symbol Introduction
Russia Symbol The Husband
Russia Symbol The Enlightened Absolutist Monarch
Russia Symbol Catherine's Foreign Policy
Russia Symbol Paul I
The Age of Catherine the Great: A Summary of World History
Introduction
The Americas
Eurasia


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.




















 

 
   Venice Welcomes the Tsarevich
 
   Photographic Services & Permissions
  Giorgio Fossati (1706–1778)
Currus triumphales ad adventum clarissimorum Moschoviae principum Pauli Petrovitz et Mariae Theodorownae [Triumphal Chariots Used for the Arrival of the Exalted Princes of Muscovy, Paul Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna (the First)]
Venice: Fossati, [1782]
NYPL, Spencer Collection

In an attempt to allay her Prussophile son’s anger over Russia’s broken alliance with Prussia, Catherine the Great sent the Grand Duke Paul and his wife to tour France and the northern Italian lands controlled by Russia’s new ally, the Habsburgs. In January 1782, the visitors – traveling anonymously as the “Count and Countess of the North” – were honored with a grand spectacle in Venice’s Piazza San Marco, complete with festival carriages. The trip provided the tsarevich and his cultivated consort an opportunity to acquire many fine and decorative art objects for their palaces.