Russian Czar’s and Czarina’s

Peter the Great (Peter I) or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov was born June 9^th, 1672, died – February 8^th, 1725. Ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from May 7^th, 1682 until his death, and jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V. He carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Czardom of Russia into a 3-billion acre Russian Empire and a major European power. Peter’s transformations in the sphere of culture, way of life, and Russian customs were of pronounced political character, and were conducted by force. The interests of the State, which were developed according to the strict monarch plan, were Peter’s main concern when performing these reforms. The introduction of the progressive customs by Decrees, tearing apart ancient Russian cultural traditions was to emphasize the difference of principle of The Russian Empire – the great state of the modern type, whose creation took (in theory) only a quarter of a century.

Elizaveta Petrovna, born in 1709 – died on January 5^th, 1762, was the Empress of Russia (1741–1762) On the eve of her death in 1762, the Russian empire spanned almost 4 billion acres (more than 16 million square kilometers). Her domestic policies allowed the nobles to gain dominance in local government while shortening their terms of service to the State. She encouraged Lomonosov’s establishment of the University of Moscow and Shuvalov’s foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. She also spent exorbitant sums of money on the grandiose baroque projects of her favorite architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, particularly in Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. The Winter Palace and the Smolny Cathedral remain the chief monuments of her reign in Saint Petersburg. Generally, she was one of the best loved Russian monarchs, because she did not allow Germans in the government and not one person was executed during her reign.

Catherine II also known as Catherine the Great, was born on May 2^nd, 1729 and reigned as Empress of Russia from July 9^th 1762 until her death on November 17^th, 1796.Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine took power after a conspiracy deposed her husband, Peter III (1728–1762), and her reign saw the high point in the influence of the Russian nobility. In spite of the duties imposed on the nobles by the first prominent “modernizer” of Russia, Czar Peter I (1672–1725), and despite Catherine’s friendships with the Western European thinkers of the Enlightenment (in particular Denis Diderot, Voltaire and Montesquieu) Catherine found it impractical to improve the lot of her poorest subjects, who continued to suffer. By the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs.

Paul I – Born on October 1^st 1754, and assassinated March 23^rd, 1801. Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He was married to Sophia Dorothea of Wurttemberg (known as Maria Fyodorovna) Their marriage resulted in the birth of ten children. Emperor Paul was idealistic and capable of great generosity, but he was also mercurial and capable of vindictiveness. He viewed the Russian nobility as decadent and corrupt, and was determined to transform them into a disciplined, principled, loyal, caste, resembling a medieval chivalric order.. The Emperor also discovered outrageous machinations and corruption in the Russian treasury. Although he repealed Catherine’s law which allowed the corporal punishment of the free classes and directed reforms which resulted in greater rights for the peasantry, and better treatment for serfs on agricultural estates, most of his policies were viewed as a great annoyance to the noble class and induced his enemies to work out a plan of action. On the night of the March 23^rd 1801, Paul was murdered in his bedroom in the newly built St Michael’s Castle by a band of dismissed officers headed by General Bennigsen.

Alexander I of Russia. Born on December 23^rd 1777, died – December 1^st 1825, also known as Alexander the Blessed. Served as Emperor of Russia from March 23^rd 1801 to December 1^st 1825 and was the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania. He was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I, and Maria Feodorovna, daughter of the Duke of W?rttemberg. Alexander was the eldest of four brothers. He succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered, and ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. In the first half of his reign Alexander tried to introduce liberal reforms, while in the second half he turned to a much more arbitrary manner of conduct, which led to the revoking of many early reforms. In foreign policy Alexander gained certain successes, mainly by winning several military campaigns. In particular under his rule Russia acquired Finland and part of Poland. The strange contradictions of his character make Alexander one of the most interesting Tsars. Adding to this, his death was shrouded in mystery, and the location of his body remains unknown.

Nicholas I. Born on July 6^th 1796, died March 2^nd 1855, was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855,known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers. In his capacity as the emperor he was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland. Nicholas I was born in Gatchina to Emperor Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna. He was a younger brother to Alexander I of Russia and Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia. Nicholas completely lacked his brothers’ spiritual and intellectual breadth; he saw his role simply as one paternal autocrat ruling his people by whatever means were necessary. In 1833 the minister of education, Sergey Uvarov, devised a program of “Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality” as the guiding principle of the regime. The people were to show loyalty to the unlimited authority of the czar, to the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, and, in a vague way, to the Russian nation simply as one paternal autocrat ruling his people by whatever means were necessary. Nicholas disliked serfdom and toyed with the idea of abolishing it in Russia, but did not do so for practical reasons of state. He feared the landowners and believed they might turn against him if he abolished serfdom. Despite the repressions of this period, Russia experienced a flowering of literature and the arts. Through the works of Aleksander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, and numerous others, Russian literature gained international stature and recognition. Ballet took root in Russia after its importation from France, and classical music became firmly established with the compositions of Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857).

Alexander II, Born on April 29^th 1818 (Moscow), was assassinated on March 1^st 1881 (Saint Petersburg), also known as Alexander the Liberator – was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from March 3^rd 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855. The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace, led by his trusted counselor Prince Gorchakov. The country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were everywhere. Encouraged by public opinion he began a period of radical reforms, including an attempt to not to depend on a landed aristocracy controlling the poor, a move to developing Russia’s natural resources and to thoroughly reform all branches of the administration. After Alexander became Czar in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course. Despite this he was a target for numerous assassination attempts (1866, 1879, and 1880). On March 13 March 1^st 1881 members of the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) party killed him with a bomb. The Czar had earlier in the day signed the Loris-Melikov constitution which would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives, had it not been repealed by his reactionary successor Alexander III.

Alexander III . Born on March 10^th 1845, died on November 1^st 1894. Reigned as Emperor of Russia from March 13^th 1881 until his death in 1894. Unlike his father, liberal-leaning Alexander II, although an enthusiastic amateur musician and patron of the ballet, he was seen as lacking refinement and elegance. All the internal reforms that he initiated were intended to correct what he considered as the too-liberal tendencies of the previous reign, so that he left behind him the reputation of a sovereign of the retrograde type. In his opinion Russia was to be saved from anarchical disorders and revolutionary agitation, not by the parliamentary institutions and so-called liberalism of Western Europe, but by the three principles that the elder generation of the Slavophils systematically recommended— Nationality, Eastern Orthodoxy, and autocracy. In foreign affairs he was emphatically a man of peace, but not at all a partisan of the doctrine of peace at any price, and he followed the principle that the best means of averting war is to be well prepared for it. Alexander III had six children of his marriage with Princess Dagmar of Denmark, also known as Maria Feodorovna.

Nicholas II. Born on May 18^th, 1868, assassinated on July 17^th, 1918 – was the last Czar of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russia’s and he is currently regarded as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on March 15^th, 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster. Critics nicknamed him Nicholas the Bloody because of the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, and the anti-Semitic pogroms that occurred during his reign. Under his rule, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War. As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914, which marked the first fatal step into World War I and thus into the demise of the Romanov dynasty less than four years later. Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, and then later in the Governor’s Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family’s medical doctor, the Tsar’s valet, the Empress’ lady-in-waiting, and the family’s cook were all executed in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 16^th/ 17^th 1918. This led to the canonization of Nicholas II and his family.

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This entry was posted on May 10, 2010 at 2:53 pm.

Posted in the All About Russia category