Aleksei, the Second Romanov Tsar NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

Aleksei (r. 1645–76) became tsar after the death of his father. The reign of this pious and decent man is notable for four events: the passage of a new law code in 1649 that strove to provide uniformity throughout the realm; the annexation of portions of present-day Ukraine in 1667; the peasant revolt led by Stepan Razin (d. 1671); and the Raskol, or schism, in the Russian Orthodox Church. Aleksei also began what was at least a superficial westernization of Russia, with the introduction of asparagus, snuff, roses, portrait painting, and ballet, as well as the enlisting of the expertise of Europeans in military and other matters. Aleksei was married twice; after his death, his two families, the Naryshkins and Miloslavskiis, waged a power struggle for the throne.