Russian Empire

Introduction
The reign of Peter the Great
- Economy
- Military, finance, and administration
- Church and education
- Relations with the West
- Internal disturbances
Peter’s immediate successors
Catherine the Great
Paul
Alexander
- Initial liberalism
- Nationalism and reaction
- The revolutionary movement
Nicholas I
- Slavophiles and Westernizers
- The Crimean War
Alexander II
- Emancipation of the serfs
- Administrative reforms
- The revolutionary movements
  - Populism
  - Terrorism
  - Loris-Melikov
- Foreign policy
- Industrial progress
Alexander III
- Administration and economy
- Foreign policy
Nicholas II
- Reassertion of autocratic principles
- Administration and economy
- Russification policy
- Resurgence of revolutionary activity
- Other political movements
- Foreign policy and the Russo-Japanese War
- Revolution of 1905 and the First and Second Dumas
- Stolypin’s regime
  - Agricultural reform
  - Russian nationalism
- World War I
- The end of the Romanov dynasty

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

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The rise and fall of the Russian tsars

Expansion of Russia, 1300–1796

St. Petersburg: Hermitage and Alexander Column

St. Petersburg, Russia

Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov

Russian Empire: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Date	November 2, 1721 - March 15, 1917

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Expansion of Russia, 1300–1796

St. Petersburg: Hermitage and Alexander Column

St. Petersburg, Russia

Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov

The rise and fall of the Russian tsars

The rise and reign of Catherine the Great

Who was Russia's last tsar?

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Topics

Slavophile Emancipation Manifesto Decembrist Westernizer Ottoman Empire Soviet Union Holy Roman Empire Roman Empire Third Reich Byzantine Empire British Empire German Empire Austria-Hungary ancient Rome

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Russian Provisional Government: Collapse of the Russian Empire

Major Events

Vladimir Lenin

Russian Revolution

Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

Ernest Meissonier: 1807, Friedland

Battle of Friedland

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Russo-Turkish wars

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Russian Revolution of 1905

Crimean War

Crimean War

Napoleon on the Battlefield at Eylau, February 1807

Battle of Eylau

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Emancipation Manifesto

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Battle of Borodino

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Bloody Sunday

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Treaty of Edirne

St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv

Kyiv

national capital, Ukraine

Moscow

Moscow

national capital, Russia

Russia

Russia

St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg

Russia

Key People

Peter I

Peter I

emperor of Russia

Babel, Isaac

Isaac Babel

Russian author

Catherine II

Catherine the Great

empress of Russia

David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion

prime minister of Israel

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova

Russian poet

Sergey Yulyevich Witte

Sergey Yulyevich, Count Witte

prime minister of Russia

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

president of Soviet Union

Karl Ernst, Ritter von Baer

Karl Ernst von Baer

Prussian-Estonian embryologist

Rasputin and the Empress

Richard Boleslavsky

Polish-born director

Nijinsky in Paris

Vaslav Nijinsky

Russian dancer

Viktor Ambartsumian

Viktor Ambartsumian

Armenian astronomer

Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev

Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev

Russian statesman

Michael

Romanov dynasty

Russian dynasty

Sholem Asch

Sholem Asch

American writer

Haim Naḥman Bialik.

Haim Naḥman Bialik

Russian-Jewish writer

Nikolay Pavlovich, Count Ignatyev

Nikolay Pavlovich, Count Ignatyev

Russian statesman

Paul, emperor of Russia

Paul

emperor of Russia

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Nikolay Aleksandrovich Berdyayev

Russian philosopher

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Jerzy Andrzejewski

Polish author

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Marie Bashkirtseff

Russian author