| Times of Imperial Russia | |
|
During the times of Imperial Russia, there came many a Czar, and, for just this reason, not all of them will be mentioned here. This is not to say that the unmentioned ones were in any way inferior, it just means that during their reign, not much happened that actually affected the empire heavily. At first, in the 1200s, the Russians were being ruled and taxed by the Mongols. Eventually, the princes of Russia rebelled against them, and they ruled Russia themselves. They modelled their ruling style after that of the iron-fisted mongols, so to the lower peoples, the change didn't really matter. One of the earlier Czars was Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great who ruled in 1462 untill 1505. He expanded Russia considerably, and had gained power in the Ural mountains. He was suceeded by Ivan IV, who came to be known as Ivan the Terrible becuase of his ruthless ruling policies. It was Ivan the Terrible who ordered the conquest of Siberia. One particularly terrible thing he did, however, was rob peasants of their rights. He made them all serfs, and bound them to their land. One not-so-terrible thing he did was have St.Baisil's Cathedral built in 1552. The first Romanov Czar was Czar Michael Romanov, who came to power in 1613 Nothing else too terribly important. 
*Peter the Great During the 'Age of Enlightenment' came Czar Peter the Great, who came to power at age 17 in 1689. Because of all the 'Enlightenment' going on, Peter was one of those oxymoronous 'Enlightened Despots'. This is similar to the oxymoron of 'Military Intelligence'. So, this 'Enlightened Despot' made Russia go through many reforms that improved life somewhat. He also imported a large ammount of Western technology and built up his military considerably. His reforms made him unpopular with the nobles of Russia becuase they took some power away from them and returned it to the people. He also founded Sankt Petersburg (Wonder where he got the name?). 
*Catherine the Great In 1762, Catherine the Great became Czarina. She too was an 'Enlightened Despot', and did many 'great' things. Some great things that Catherine the Great did was open several Universities, encouraged education, promoted trade with other countries, and she strived to make things better for the people (Generally you will see this pattern of a country improving itself and getting happier whenever a woman is ruling, in place of remaining miserable while it sets fourth and ivades places whith a man in on the throne. Other good examples would be Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.) The nobles, again, were not crazy about having their power taken away, so they strived to keep the miserable miserable. One thing that they did was pay wealthy farmers to pretend they were peasants whenever Catherine came in to town so that she would not know how poor they were, and so she would not feel it necessary to give them any more rights. She conqured some more land by the Black Sea, and when Poland broke up and was to be split between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, Catherine ensured that Russia gained the largest chunk of land. 
*The French retreating In 1812, Napol�on asked that Russia stop selling grain to Britain, but Czar Alexander I told him no. And so, that Frenchman made his most infamous (yet not too infamous, as Hitler obviously hadn't heard of it) move: he ivaded Russia. Since Napol�on's army had considerably more experience, Alexander I decided it wise not to meet the invasion head-on. Instead, his people retreated as the French army came, and they burned all their fields and slaughtered their livestalk, leaving the French army foraging everywhere possible for scraps. Napol�on finally reached Moskva, only to find it smoldering. Alexander had chosen to burn it before he would surrender it. Napol�on reigned over this ashen pile for about four weeks, all the while expecting offers of peace. Alexander never made such an offer. Then, winter hit, and there was no shelter or food. the French were forced to retreat, and this is when the Russian army attacked. The French lost over a million men in the slaughter. Moskva was regained and rebuilt. During World War I Czar Nicholas ruled. He was the very last Czar, because after Russia pulled out, the bolshiveks killed him and his family, then changed the government a bit. Other than that, poor old Nikey really is not worth much mention... What happened next? World War One! Go Back | |
