Russian Tsars Flashcards
She was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (a minor German principality) and was chosen as the bride of the future Peter III. She had thoroughly Russianized herself by the time Peter became tsar, and soon had him deposed; she then dispatched several claimants to the throne and crushed a peasant uprising led by Emilian Pugachev.
Catherine II (or the Great)
He launched a program of “counter-reforms:” the state enacted a series of Temporary Regulations giving it the power to crack down on terrorism, increased censorship, tightened controls on Russia’s universities, created a position of “land captain” to exert state control in the countryside, and either encouraged or ignored the first anti-Jewish pogroms.
Alexander III
He ruled Russia from the failure of the Decembrist Uprising to the middle of the Crimean War, defending a holy trinity of “Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality.” He established a repressive secret police force known as the Third Section. Contemporaries referred to him as the “Gendarme of Europe” after he helped the Habsburgs squelch the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
Nicholas I
The last of the Romanovs, ruled until his overthrow in the February Revolution of 1917. He is usually seen as both a kind man who loved his family and an incapable monarch who helped bring about the end of the tsarist state.
Nicholas II
Nicholas abdicated in 1917 and was shot in 1918.
He temporarily abdicated, killed his favorite son, created a state-within-the-state called the oprichnina to wage war on the boyars, and participated in the torture of his enemies, plunge the country into the subsequent period of civil strife known as the “Time of Troubles.”
Ivan IV
He is now best known as the subject of a Pushkin play and a Mussorgsky opera.
Boris Godunov
He introduced a system of local governing bodies called zemstvos, tried to increase the rule of law in the court system, eased censorship, and reorganized the army. Alexander became more reactionary after an attempted assassination in 1866, and was successfully assassinated in 1881.
Alexander II
His Grand Embassy to Europe enabled him to learn about Western life (and even to work in a Dutch shipyard); he later invited Western artisans to come to Russia, required the boyars (aristocrats) to shave their beards and wear Western clothing, and even founded a new capital, St. Petersburg — his “window on the West.”
Peter I (or the Great)
He was proclaimed Grand Prince of Muscovy in 1533 and first Tsar of All Rus’ in 1547.
Ivan IV
Ivan IV is known in the West as “Ivan the Terrible,” but his Russian nickname, Groznyi, would be more accurately translated as “awe-inspiring” or “menacing” (the original meaning of the English word “terrible”)
In 1613, near the end of the Time of Troubles, a zemskii sobor elected this 16-year-old grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible’s “good” wife Anastasia as the new tsar. He was the son of a powerful churchman named Filaret (who soon became patriarch); as tsar, he has usually been seen as a nonentity dominated by Filaret and other relatives.
Michael Romanov
She corresponded with Enlightenment philosophers, granted charters of rights and obligations to the nobility and the towns, oversaw the partition of Poland, and expanded the empire. Catherine is well known for her extravagant love life: her 21 acknowledged lovers included Grigorii Potemkin (who constructed the famous Potemkin village on an imperial inspection tour).
Catherine II (or the Great)
He took the throne in 1801 when his repressive father Paul was assassinated and immediately set out on a more liberal course, but he left his strongest supporters disappointed. He is best known for his wars with Napoleon (first as an ally and then as an enemy),
Alexander I
He began his career as a boyar in Ivan the Terrible’s oprichnina, arranging his sister Irina’s marriage to Ivan’s son Fyodor; then he became regent under Fyodor, and was elected tsar when Fyodor died in 1598. But He was rumored to have arranged the murder of Fyodor’s brother Dmitrii, and the first of several “False Dmitris” launched a revolt against him. He died in the midst of growing unrest
Boris Godunov
This son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy, which made him an unpopular leader. He was deposed and possibly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his German wife, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who succeeded him to the throne.
Peter III
He also led his country in the Great Northern War (in which Charles XII of Sweden was defeated at Poltava), created a Table of Ranks for the nobility, and reformed the bureaucracy and army. But He could also be violent and cruel: he personally participated in the torture of the streltsy, or musketeers, who rebelled against him, and had his own son executed.
Peter I (or the Great)
