The Russian Empire was an empire that extended across northern Eurasia from 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in 1917, forming the final era of Tsarist Russia and the wider Russian monarchy. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history, behind only the British and Mongol empires. The 1897 Russian census found a population of 126 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity.
From the 10th to 17th century, the Russian lands were dominated by a noble class known as the boyars, above whom stood the grand prince and later the tsar, an absolute monarch. The groundwork of the empire was laid by Ivan III (), who greatly expanded his domain, established a centralized Russian national state, and secured independence from the Great Horde. His grandson, Ivan IV (), was the first Russian monarch to be crowned as tsar in 1547. Between 1550 and 1700, the Russian state grew by an average of per year. Peter the Great transformed the tsardom into an empire, and fought wars that turned Russia into a major European power. He moved the capital from Moscow to the new model city of Saint Petersburg, and led a cultural revolution that introduced a modern, scientific, rationalist, and Western-oriented system. Catherine the Great () presided over further Russian expansion by conquest, colonization, and diplomacy, while continuing Peter's policy of modernization. Alexander I () helped defeat the militaristic ambitions of Napoleon and constituted the Holy Alliance, which aimed to restrain the rise of secularism and liberalism across Europe. Russia further expanded to the west, south, and east, strengthening it as a European power. Its victories in the Russo-Turkish wars were checked by defeat in the Crimean War (1853–1856), leading to a period of reform and conquests in Central Asia instead. Alexander II () initiated major reforms, most notably the 1861 emancipation of all 23 million serfs. The period also saw major developments in literature, music, and the sciences.
By the start of the 19th century, Russian territory extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea in the south, and from the Baltic Sea in the west to Alaska in the east. It colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867, and in the early-to-mid 19th century briefly maintained outposts in California. The empire also expanded its control over the Caucasus, most of Central Asia, and parts of Northeast Asia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the empire experienced industrial growth and railway construction, though the country remained largely agrarian. Severe famines, such as that of 1891–1892, along with resistance to political reform, led to growing unrest and the rise of revolutionary movements. Following the 1905 Revolution, Nicholas II () authorized the creation of a national parliament, the State Duma, though ultimate power remained with him.
Russia entered the First World War in 1914 on the side of the Allies. High casualties, military setbacks, and severe food and fuel shortages in the cities led to widespread discontent with the monarchy. In 1917, mass unrest in Petrograd and army mutinies culminated in the February Revolution, which led to Nicholas II's abdication, the establishment of the Russian Provisional Government, and the proclamation of the Russian Republic. Political instability, continued involvement in the unpopular war, and economic disruption resulted in mass demonstrations against the government in July. The republic was overthrown in the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks, who proclaimed the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and signed a treaty that ended Russia's involvement in the war, but who nevertheless were opposed by various factions known collectively as the Whites. After emerging victorious in the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks established the Soviet Union across most of the Russian territory; Russia was one of four continental European empires to collapse as a result of World War I, along with Germany, Austria–Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.
History
From the 10th to 17th century, the Russian lands were dominated by a noble class known as the boyars, above whom stood the grand prince and later the tsar, an absolute monarch. The foundations of a unified Russian state and eventually the Russian Empire were laid in the 15th century under Ivan III.; Moscow became the leading Russian principality and came to dominate the region known as Great Russia; by the early 16th century, the remaining Russian states were united with Moscow. The subjects of the Muscovite ruler were overwhelmingly Great Russian in ethnicity and Orthodox in religion. As Moscow was the only independent Orthodox power following the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, its rulers had already taken symbolic steps toward becoming an empire by marrying into the Byzantine imperial dynasty, adopting the double-headed eagle as their symbol, and the title of tsar (caesar).
During the reign of Ivan IV, the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan were conquered by Russia in the mid-16th century, marking the beginning of the transformation from an almost mono-ethnic realm into a multi-ethnic empire. The Russians began to expand into Siberia, initially in pursuit of the region's profitable furs. Following the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century, the traditional alliance of autocratic monarchy, church, and aristocracy was seen as the only basis for preserving social order and Russian statehood, which legitimized the rule of the Romanov dynasty.
Peter the Great (1682–1725)
The foundations of the Russian Empire were laid during Peter I's reforms, which altered Russia's political and social structure, and as a result of the Great Northern War which strengthened Russia's world standing. Peter I () played a major role in introducing the European state system into Russia. While Russia's vast lands had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those in the West. Nearly the entire population was devoted to agriculture, with only a small percentage living in towns. The class of kholops, whose status was close to that of slaves, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus counting them for poll taxation. Agricultural kholops had been converted into serfs in 1679. They were largely tied to the land, in a feudal sense, until the late 19th century.
Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Empire. His attention then turned north; Russia lacked a secure northern seaport, except at Arkhangelsk on the White Sea, where the harbor was frozen for nine months a year. Access to the Baltic Sea was blocked by Sweden, whose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a "window to the sea" led him, in 1699, to make a secret alliance with Saxony, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Denmark-Norway against Sweden; they conducted the Great Northern War, which ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden asked for peace with Russia. On , the day of the announcement of the Treaty of Nystad, the Governing Senate and Synod invested the tsar with the titles of Peter the Great, Pater Patriae (father of the fatherland), and Imperator of all Russia. The adoption of the title of imperator by Peter I is seen as the beginning of "imperial" Russia.
As a result of the war with Sweden, Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, securing access to the Baltic Sea. In 1703, he founded the new capital, Saint Petersburg, on the Neva river delta to replace Moscow as the administrative and maritime center. The city was developed on a strict European grid pattern under architects such as Domenico Trezzini, utilizing Petrine Baroque and Italianate architecture to symbolize Russia's integration into Europe.
Peter reorganized his government based on the latest political models, molding Russia into an absolutist state. The Military Regulations recognized the autocratic nature of the regime. Peter replaced the old Boyar Duma (council of nobles) with a nine-member Senate, in effect a supreme council of state. The vestiges of the independence of the boyars were lost. The countryside was divided into new provinces and districts. Peter informed the Senate that its mission was to collect taxes, and tax revenues tripled over his reign. Peter continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service from all nobles, in the Table of Ranks and equated the votchina with an estate. Russia's modern fleet was built by Peter, along with an army reformed in a European style and educational institutions (the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences). Civil lettering was adopted during Peter I's reign, and the first Russian newspaper, Vedomosti, was published. Peter I promoted science, particularly geography and geology, trade, and industry, including shipbuilding, as well as the growth of the educational system. Peter laid the groundwork for state-sponsored primary and technical schooling, such as cipher and navigation schools, though formal education remained largely confined to the nobility and state servitors.
As part of Peter's reorganization, he enacted a church reform. The Russian Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Most Holy Synod, which was led by a government official.
The concept of the triune of the Russian people, composed of the Great Russians, the Little Russians, and the White Russians, was introduced under Peter I, and it was associated with the name of Archimandrite Zacharias Kopystensky (1621), the Archimandrite of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and expanded upon in the writings of an associate of Peter I, Archbishop Professor Theophan Prokopovich. Several of Peter I's associates included Alexander Menshikov, Jacob Bruce, Mikhail Golitsyn and Anikita Repnin. During Peter's reign serf labor played a significant role in the growth of industry, reinforcing traditional socioeconomic structures. International trade increased as a result of Peter I's industrial reforms. However, imports of goods overtook exports, strengthening the role of foreigners in Russian trade, particularly the British.
In 1722, Peter turned his aspirations toward increasing Russian influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of the weakened Safavid Persians. He made Astrakhan the base of military efforts against Persia, and waged the first full-scale war against them in 1722–23. Peter the Great temporarily annexed areas of Iran to Russia, which after his death were returned in the 1732 Treaty of Resht and 1735 Treaty of Ganja as a deal to oppose the Ottomans.
Peter died in 1725, leaving an unsettled succession. After the short reigns of his widow, Catherine I, and his grandson Peter II (who temporarily moved the court back to Moscow), the crown passed to Empress Anna in 1730. She slowed reforms and led a successful war against the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in a significant weakening of the Crimean Khanate, an Ottoman vassal and long-term Russian adversary. The next emperor, the infant Ivan VI, was deposed in 1741 and imprisoned for the rest of his life until being killed in 1764. The discontent over the dominant positions of Baltic Germans in Russian politics resulted in Peter I's daughter Elizabeth being put on the Russian throne in 1741. Elizabeth supported the arts, architecture, and the sciences (for example, the founding of Moscow University). But she did not carry out significant structural reforms. Her reign, which lasted nearly 20 years, is also known for Russia's involvement in the Seven Years' War, where it was successful militarily, but gained little politically.