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We invite you to remember the history of the Romanov dynasty using a chronological selection of important or interesting events.

On February 21, 1613, Romanov was elected tsar

Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was elected tsar at the age of 16 by the Zemsky Sobor. The choice fell on the young prince because he was a descendant of the Rurikovichs, the first dynasty of Russian tsars. The death of the last representative of their line, Fyodor I (he was childless), in 1598 marked the beginning of a turbulent period in Russian history. The ascension to the throne of the founder of the Romanov dynasty marked the end of the “Time of Troubles.” Michael I pacified and restored the country. He made peace with the Poles and Swedes, took care of the finances of the kingdom, reorganized the army, and created industry. He had ten children from his second wife Evdokia Streshneva. Five survived, including Tsarevich Alexei (1629-1675), who, like his father, came to the throne at age 16.

May 7, 1682: murder of the first Romanov?

20 years. This is exactly how old Tsar Feodor III was at the time of his death on May 7, 1682. The eldest son of Alexei I and his first wife Maria Miloslavskaya was distinguished by very poor health. So, in 1676, the coronation ceremony (it usually lasts three hours) was shortened to the maximum so that the weak monarch could defend it to the end. Be that as it may, in reality he turned out to be a reformer and innovator. He reorganized the civil service, modernized the army, and banned private tutors and the study of foreign languages ​​without the supervision of official teachers.

Be that as it may, his death seems suspicious to some experts: there are theories that his sister Sophia poisoned him. Perhaps he became the first in a long list of Romanovs who died at the hands of close relatives?

Two kings on the throne

After the death of Fedor III, he was to be replaced by Ivan V, the second son of Alexei I from his first wife Maria Miloslavskaya. Nevertheless, he was a man of small minds, unfit to rule. As a result, he shared the throne with his half-brother Peter (10 years old), the son of Natalia Naryshkina. He spent more than 13 years on the throne without really ruling the country. In the early years, Ivan V's elder sister Sophia was in charge. In 1689, Peter I removed her from power after a failed plot to kill his brother: as a result, she was forced to take monastic vows. After the death of Ivan V on February 8, 1696, Peter became a full-fledged Russian monarch.

1721: Tsar becomes emperor

Peter I, monarch, autocrat, reformer, conqueror and conqueror of the Swedes (after more than 20 years of war, the Peace of Nystad was signed on August 30, 1721), received from the Senate (which was created by the tsar in 1711, and its members were appointed by him) the titles “Great ", "Father of the Fatherland" and "All-Russian Emperor". Thus, he became the first Emperor of Russia, and from then on this designation of monarch finally replaced the tsar.

Four Empresses

When Peter the Great died without designating an heir, his second wife Catherine was proclaimed empress in January 1725. This allowed the Romanovs to remain on the throne. Catherine I continued her husband's work until her death in 1727.

The second Empress Anna I was the daughter of Ivan V and the niece of Peter I. She sat on the throne from January 1730 to October 1740, but was not interested in state affairs, actually transferring the leadership of the country to her lover Ernst Johann Biron.

Context

How the tsars returned to Russian history

Atlantico 08/19/2015

The Romanov dynasty - despots and warriors?

Daily Mail 02/02/2016

Was Moscow ruled by “Russian” tsars?

Observer 04/08/2016

Tsar Peter the First was not Russian

Observer 02/05/2016 The third empress was Elizaveta Petrovna, the second daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine. At first she was not allowed to ascend the throne because she was born before her parents’ marriage, but then she nevertheless stood at the head of the country after the bloodless coup d’etat of 1741, removing the regent Anna Leopoldovna (the granddaughter of Ivan V and the mother of Tsar Ivan VI, appointed by Anna I). After her coronation in 1742, Elizabeth I continued her father's conquests. The Empress restored and decorated St. Petersburg, which had been abandoned for the sake of Moscow. She died in 1761, leaving no descendants, but appointing her nephew Peter III as successor.

The last in the line of Russian empresses was Catherine II the Great, born in Prussia under the name Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst. She took power by overthrowing her husband Peter III in 1762, just months after his coronation. Her long reign(34 years is a record among the Romanov dynasty) was also one of the most outstanding. Being an enlightened despot, she expanded the territory of the country, strengthened the central government, developed industry and trade, improved Agriculture and continued the development of St. Petersburg. She became famous as a philanthropist, was a friend of philosophers and scientists, and left a rich legacy after her death in November 1796.

March 11-12, 1801: conspiracy against Paul I

That night, Catherine II's son Paul I was killed in Mikhailovsky Castle after refusing to abdicate the throne. The conspiracy against the emperor, considered by many to be crazy (he pursued a very extravagant domestic and foreign policy), was organized by the governor of St. Petersburg, Pyotr Alekseevich Palen. Among the conspirators was the eldest son of the deceased, Alexander I, who was convinced that they only wanted to overthrow and not kill the king. According to the official version, the emperor died of apoplexy.

45 thousand dead and wounded

These are the losses of the Russian army in the Battle of Borodino (124 kilometers from Moscow). There Grand Army Napoleon clashed with the troops of Alexander I on September 7, 1812. As night fell Russian army retreated. Napoleon could march on Moscow. This was a humiliation for the king and fueled his hatred of Napoleon: now his goal was to continue the war until the power of the French emperor in Europe fell. To do this, he entered into an alliance with Prussia. On March 31, 1814, Alexander I entered Paris in triumph. On April 9, Napoleon abdicated.

7 assassination attempts on Alexander II

Emperor Alexander II seemed too much of a liberal for the aristocracy, but this was clearly not enough for the oppositionists who sought to eliminate him. The first attempt took place on April 16, 1866 in a summer garden in St. Petersburg: the terrorist’s bullet only grazed him. The following year they tried to kill him during the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1879 there were as many as three assassination attempts. In February 1880, an explosion occurred in the dining room of the Winter Palace. The king then gave a dinner in honor of his wife's brother. By luck, he was not in the room at that moment, because he was still receiving guests.

The sixth attempt occurred on March 13, 1881 on the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg: an explosion claimed the lives of three people. The uninjured Alexander approached the neutralized terrorist. At that moment, Narodnaya Volya member Ignatius Grinevitsky threw a bomb at him. The seventh attempt was successful...

Emperor Nicholas II was crowned with his wife Alexandra (Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt) on May 26, 1896 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. 7 thousand guests attended the festive dinner. However, the events were overshadowed by tragedy: on Khodynka Field, several thousand people died in a stampede during the distribution of gifts and food. The tsar, despite what had happened, did not change the program and went to a reception with the French ambassador. This aroused the anger of the people and exacerbated hostility between the monarch and his subjects.

304 years reign

That is how many years the Romanov dynasty was in power in Russia. The descendants of Michael I ruled until February revolution 1917. In March 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich, but he did not accept the throne, which marked the end of the monarchy.
In August 1917, Nicholas II and his family were sent into exile to Tobolsk, and then to Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, he was shot along with his wife and five children by order of the Bolsheviks.

The family belongs to the ancient families of the Moscow boyars. The first ancestor of this family known to us from the chronicles is Andrei Ivanovich, who had the nickname Mare, in 1347 he was in the service of the Great Prince of Vladimir and Moscow, Semyon Ivanovich Proud.

Semyon Proud was the eldest son and heir and continued the policies of his father. At that time, the Moscow principality strengthened significantly, and Moscow began to claim leadership among other lands North-Eastern Rus'. The Moscow princes not only established a good relationship with the Golden Horde, but also began to play a more important role in all-Russian affairs. Among the Russian princes, Semyon was considered the eldest, and few of them dared to contradict him. His character was clearly evident in his family life. After the death of his first wife, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Semyon remarried.

His chosen one was the Smolensk princess Eupraxia, but a year after the wedding the Moscow prince for some reason sent her back to her father, Prince Fyodor Svyatoslavich. Then Semyon decided on a third marriage, this time turning to Moscow's old rivals - the Tver princes. In 1347, an embassy went to Tver to woo Princess Maria, the daughter of Tver Prince Alexander Mikhailovich.

At one time, Alexander Mikhailovich died tragically in the Horde, falling victim to the intrigues of Ivan Kalita, Semyon’s father. And now the children of irreconcilable enemies were united by marriage. The embassy to Tver was headed by two Moscow boyars - Andrei Kobyla and Alexey Bosovolkov. This is how the ancestor of Tsar Mikhail Romanov appeared on the historical stage for the first time.

The embassy was successful. But Metropolitan Theognost unexpectedly intervened and refused to bless this marriage. Moreover, he ordered the closure of Moscow churches to prevent weddings. This position was apparently caused by Semyon’s previous divorce. But the prince sent generous gifts to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom the Moscow Metropolitan was subordinate, and received permission for the marriage. In 1353, Semyon the Proud died from the plague that raged in Rus'. Nothing more is known about Andrei Kobyl, but his descendants continued to serve the Moscow princes.

According to genealogists, the offspring of Andrei Kobyla was extensive. He left five sons, who became the founders of many famous noble families. The sons' names were: Semyon Stallion (didn't he get his name in honor of Semyon the Proud?), Alexander Yolka, Vasily Ivantey (or Vantey), Gavrila Gavsha (Gavsha is the same as Gabriel, only in a diminutive form; such endings of names in "-sha" were extended to Novgorod land) and Fyodor Koshka. In addition, Andrei had a younger brother Fyodor Shevlyaga, from whom came the noble families of Motovilovs, Trusovs, Vorobins and Grabezhevs. The nicknames Mare, Stallion and Shevlyaga (“nag”) are close in meaning to each other, which is not surprising, since several noble families have a similar tradition - representatives of the same family could bear nicknames from the same semantic circle. However, what was the origin of the brothers Andrei and Fyodor Ivanovich themselves?

The genealogies of the 16th – early 17th centuries do not report anything about this. But already in the first half of the 17th century, when they gained a foothold on the Russian throne, a legend about their ancestors appeared. Many noble families traced themselves to people from other countries and lands. This became a kind of tradition of the ancient Russian nobility, which, thus, almost entirely had “foreign” origin. Moreover, the most popular were the two “directions” from which the noble ancestors supposedly “exited”: either “from the Germans” or “from the Horde”. “Germans” meant not only the inhabitants of Germany, but all Europeans in general. Therefore, in the legends about the “excursions” of the founders of the clans, one can find the following clarifications: “From German, from Prus” or “From German, from Svei (i.e., Swedish) land.”

All these legends were similar to each other. Usually, a certain “honest man” with a strange name, unusual for Russian ears, came, often with a retinue, to serve one of the Grand Dukes. Here he was baptized, and his descendants became part of the Russian elite. Then noble families arose from their nicknames, and since many families traced themselves back to the same ancestor, it is understandable that different versions of the same legends appeared. The reasons for creating these stories are quite clear. By inventing foreign ancestors for themselves, Russian aristocrats “justified” their leadership position in society.

They made their families more ancient, constructed a high origin, because many of the ancestors were considered descendants of foreign princes and rulers, thereby emphasizing their exclusivity. Of course, this does not mean that absolutely all the legends were fictitious; probably, the most ancient of them could have had a real basis (for example, the ancestor of the Pushkins, Radsha, judging by the end of the name, was related to Novgorod and lived in the 12th century, according to some researchers, could actually be of foreign origin). But highlight these historical facts behind the layers of conjectures and conjectures, it’s not quite simple. And besides, it can be difficult to unambiguously confirm or refute such a story due to the lack of sources. By the end of the 17th century, and especially in the 18th century, such legends acquired an increasingly fabulous character, turning into pure fantasies of authors poorly familiar with history. The Romanovs did not escape this either.

The creation of the family legend was “took upon themselves” by representatives of those families who had common ancestors with the Romanovs: the Sheremetevs, the already mentioned Trusovs, the Kolychevs. When the official genealogical book of the Muscovite kingdom was created in the 1680s, which later received the name “Velvet” because of its binding, noble families submitted their genealogies to the Rank Order, which was in charge of this matter. The Sheremetevs also presented the painting of their ancestors, and it turned out that, according to their information, the Russian boyar Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla was in fact a prince who came from Prussia.

The “Prussian” origin of the ancestor was very common at that time among ancient families. It has been suggested that this happened because of the “Prussian Street” at one end of ancient Novgorod. Along this street there was a road to Pskov, the so-called. "The Prussian Way". After the annexation of Novgorod to the Moscow state, many noble families of this city were resettled to the Moscow volosts, and vice versa. Thus, thanks to a misunderstood name, “Prussian” immigrants joined the Moscow nobility. But in the case of Andrei Kobyla, one can rather see the influence of another legend, very famous at that time.

At the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, when a unified Moscow state was formed and the Moscow princes began to lay claim to the royal (cesar, i.e., imperial) title, the well-known idea “Moscow is the Third Rome” appeared. Moscow became the heir to the great Orthodox tradition of the Second Rome - Constantinople, and through it the imperial power of the First Rome - the Rome of the emperors Augustus and Constantine the Great. The continuity of power was ensured by the marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaeologus, and the legend “about the gifts of Monomakh” - the Byzantine emperor, who transferred the royal crown and other regalia of royal power to his grandson Vladimir Monomakh in Rus', and the adoption of the imperial double-headed eagle as a state symbol. Visible proof of the greatness of the new kingdom was built under Ivan III and Vasily III magnificent ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin. This idea was also maintained at the genealogical level. It was at this time that the legend about the origin of the then ruling Rurik dynasty arose. Rurik’s foreign, Varangian origin could not fit into the new ideology, and the founder of the princely dynasty became a 14th-generation descendant of a certain Prus, a relative of Emperor Augustus himself. Prus was supposedly the ruler of ancient Prussia, once inhabited by Slavs, and his descendants became the rulers of Rus'. And just as the Rurikovichs turned out to be the successors of the Prussian kings, and through them the Roman emperors, so the descendants of Andrei Kobyla created a “Prussian” legend for themselves.
Subsequently, the legend acquired new details. In a more complete form, it was drawn up by the steward Stepan Andreevich Kolychev, who under Peter I became the first Russian king of arms. In 1722, he headed the Heraldry Office under the Senate, a special institution that dealt with state heraldry and was in charge of accounting and class affairs of the nobility. Now the origins of Andrei Kobyla have “acquired” new features.

In 373 (or even 305) AD (at that time the Roman Empire still existed), the Prussian king Pruteno gave the kingdom to his brother Weidewut, and he himself became the high priest of his pagan tribe in the city of Romanov. This city seemed to be located on the banks of the Dubissa and Nevyazha rivers, at the confluence of which grew a sacred, evergreen oak tree of extraordinary height and thickness. Before his death, Veidevuth divided his kingdom among his twelve sons. The fourth son was Nedron, whose descendants owned the Samogit lands (part of Lithuania). In the ninth generation, a descendant of Nedron was Divon. He lived already in the 13th century and constantly defended his lands from the knights of the sword. Finally, in 1280, his sons, Russingen and Glanda Kambila, were baptized, and in 1283 Glanda (Glandal or Glandus) Kambila came to Rus' to serve the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich. Here he was baptized and began to be called Mare. According to other versions, Glanda was baptized with the name Ivan in 1287, and Andrei Kobyla was his son.

The artificiality of this story is obvious. Everything about it is fantastic, and no matter how hard some historians tried to verify its authenticity, their attempts were unsuccessful. Two characteristic motifs are striking. Firstly, the 12 sons of Veydevut are very reminiscent of the 12 sons of Prince Vladimir, the baptist of Rus', and the fourth son Nedron is the fourth son of Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise. Secondly, the author’s desire to connect the beginning of the Romanov family in Rus' with the first Moscow princes is obvious. After all, Daniil Alexandrovich was not only the founder of the Moscow principality, but also the founder of the Moscow dynasty, whose successors were the Romanovs.
Nevertheless, the “Prussian” legend became very popular and was officially recorded in the “General Arms Book of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire,” created on the initiative of Paul I, who decided to streamline all Russian noble heraldry. The noble family coats of arms were entered into the armorial book, which were approved by the emperor, and along with the image and description of the coat of arms, a certificate of the origin of the family was also given. The descendants of Kobyla - the Sheremetevs, Konovnitsyns, Neplyuevs, Yakovlevs and others, noting their “Prussian” origin, introduced the image of a “sacred” oak as one of the figures in their family coats of arms, and borrowed the central image itself (two crosses above which a crown is placed) from the heraldry of the city of Danzig (Gdansk).

Of course, as we develop historical science researchers were not only critical of the legend about the origin of the Mare, but also tried to discover any real historical basis in it. The most extensive study of the “Prussian” roots of the Romanovs was undertaken by the outstanding pre-revolutionary historian V.K. Trutovsky, who saw some correspondence between the information in the legend about Glanda Kambila and the real situation in the Prussian lands of the 13th century. Historians did not abandon such attempts in the future. But if the legend of Glanda Kambila could convey to us some grains of historical data, then its “external” design practically reduces this significance to nothing. It may be of interest from the point of view public consciousness Russian nobility of the 17th–18th centuries, but not in any way in the matter of clarifying the true origin of the reigning family. Such a brilliant expert on Russian genealogy as A.A. Zimin wrote that Andrei Kobyla “probably came from native Moscow (and Pereslavl) landowners.” In any case, be that as it may, it is Andrei Ivanovich who remains the first reliable ancestor of the Romanov dynasty.
Let's return to the real pedigree of his descendants. The eldest son of Mare, Semyon Stallion, became the founder of the nobles Lodygins, Konovnitsyns, Kokorevs, Obraztsovs, Gorbunovs. Of these, the Lodygins and Konovnitsyns left the greatest mark on Russian history. The Lodygins come from the son of Semyon Stallion - Grigory Lodyga (“lodyga” is an ancient Russian word meaning foot, stand, ankle). The famous engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin (1847–1923), who in 1872 invented the electric incandescent lamp in Russia, belonged to this family.

The Konovnitsyns descend from the grandson of Grigory Lodyga - Ivan Semyonovich Konovnitsa. Among them, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1764–1822), the hero of many wars waged by Russia at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, became famous, including Patriotic War 1812. He distinguished himself in the battles for Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, in the “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig, and in the Battle of Borodino he commanded the Second Army after Prince P.I. was wounded. Bagration. In 1815–1819, Konovnitsyn was Minister of War, and in 1819 he and his descendants were elevated to the rank of count. Russian Empire.
From the second son of Andrei Kobyla, Alexander Yolka, came the families of the Kolychevs, Sukhovo-Kobylins, Sterbeevs, Khludenevs, Neplyuevs. Alexander's eldest son Fyodor Kolych (from the word "kolcha", i.e. lame) became the founder of the Kolychevs. Of the representatives of this genus, the most famous is St. Philip (in the world Fyodor Stepanovich Kolychev, 1507–1569). In 1566 he became Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. Angrily denouncing the atrocities of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Philip was deposed in 1568 and then strangled by one of the leaders of the guardsmen, Malyuta Skuratov.

The Sukhovo-Kobylins descend from another son of Alexander Yolka, Ivan Sukhoi (i.e., “thin”). The most prominent representative of this family was the playwright Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817–1903), author of the trilogy “Krechinsky’s Wedding”, “The Affair” and “The Death of Tarelkin”. In 1902, he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. His sister, Sofya Vasilievna (1825–1867), an artist who received a large gold medal from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1854 for a landscape from life (which she depicted in the painting of the same name from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery), also painted portraits and genre compositions. Another sister, Elizaveta Vasilievna (1815–1892), married Countess Salias de Tournemire, gained fame as a writer under the pseudonym Evgenia Tour. Her son, Count Evgeniy Andreevich Salias de Tournemire (1840–1908), was also a famous writer and historical novelist in his time (he was called the Russian Alexandre Dumas). His sister, Maria Andreevna (1841–1906), was the wife of Field Marshal Joseph Vladimirovich Gurko (1828–1901), and his granddaughter, Princess Evdokia (Eda) Yuryevna Urusova (1908–1996), was an outstanding theater and film actress of the Soviet era.

The youngest son of Alexander Yolka, Fyodor Dyutka (Dyudka, Dudka or even Detko), became the founder of the Neplyuev family. Among the Neplyuevs, Ivan Ivanovich Neplyuev (1693–1773), a diplomat who was a Russian resident in Turkey (1721–1734), and then the governor of the Orenburg region, and from 1760 a senator and conference minister, stands out.
Vasily Ivantey's descendants ended with his son Gregory, who died childless.

From the fourth son of Kobyla, Gavrila Gavsha, came the Boborykins. This family produced the talented writer Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836–1921), author of the novels “Businessmen”, “China Town” and, among others, by the way, “Vasily Terkin” (except for the name, this literary character has nothing in common with the hero A. T. Tvardovsky).
Finally, Andrei Kobyla's fifth son, Fyodor Koshka, was the direct ancestor of the Romanovs. He served Dmitry Donskoy and is repeatedly mentioned in the chronicles among his entourage. Perhaps it was he who was entrusted by the prince to defend Moscow during the famous war with Mamai, which ended in the victory of the Russians on the Kulikovo Field. Before his death, the Cat took monastic vows and was named Theodoret. His family became related to the Moscow and Tver princely dynasties - branches of the Rurikovich family. Thus, Fyodor’s daughter Anna was married to the Mikulin prince Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1391. The Mikulin inheritance was part of the Tver land, and Fyodor Mikhailovich himself was the youngest son of the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail Alexandrovich was at enmity with Dmitry Donskoy for a long time. Three times he received a label from the Horde for the Great Reign of Vladimir, but each time, due to Dmitry’s opposition, he could not become the main Russian prince. However, gradually the strife between the Moscow and Tver princes faded away. Back in 1375, at the head of an entire coalition of princes, Dmitry made a successful campaign against Tver, and since then Mikhail Alexandrovich abandoned attempts to seize leadership from the Moscow prince, although relations between them remained tense. The marriage with the Koshkins was probably supposed to help establish friendly relations between the eternal enemies.

But not only Tver was embraced by the descendants of Fyodor Koshka with their matrimonial politics. Soon the Moscow princes themselves fell into their orbit. Among the sons of Koshka was Fyodor Goltai, whose daughter, Maria, was married in the winter of 1407 by one of the sons of the Serpukhov and Borovsk prince Vladimir Andreevich, Yaroslav.
Vladimir Andreevich, the founder of Serpukhov, was Dmitry Donskoy’s cousin. There were always the kindest between them friendly relations. The brothers took many important steps in the life of the Moscow state together. So, together they supervised the construction of the white-stone Moscow Kremlin, together they fought on the Kulikovo Field. Moreover, it was Vladimir Andreevich with the governor D.M. Bobrok-Volynsky commanded an ambush regiment, which at a critical moment decided the outcome of the entire battle. Therefore, he entered with the nickname not only Brave, but also Donskoy.

Yaroslav Vladimirovich, and in his honor the city of Maloyaroslavets was founded, where he reigned, he also bore the name Afanasy at baptism. This was one of the last cases when, according to a long-standing tradition, the Rurikovichs gave their children double names: secular and baptismal. The prince died of a pestilence in 1426 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where his grave exists to this day. From his marriage to the granddaughter of Fyodor Koshka, Yaroslav had a son, Vasily, who inherited the entire Borovsk-Serpukhov inheritance, and two daughters, Maria and Elena. In 1433, Maria was married to the young Moscow prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, grandson of Dmitry Donskoy.
At this time, a brutal strife began on Moscow soil between Vasily and his mother Sofia Vitovtovna, on the one hand, and the family of his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, Prince of Zvenigorod, on the other. Yuri and his sons - Vasily (in the future, blinded in one eye and became Kosym) and Dmitry Shemyaka (the nickname comes from the Tatar “chimek” - “outfit”) - laid claim to the Moscow reign. Both Yuryevichs attended Vasily’s wedding in Moscow. And it was here that the famous historical episode took place, fueling this irreconcilable struggle. Seeing Vasily Yuryevich wearing a gold belt that once belonged to Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tore it off, deciding that it did not rightfully belong to the Zvenigorod prince. One of the initiators of this scandal was Fyodor Koshka’s grandson Zakhary Ivanovich. The offended Yuryevichs left the wedding feast, and war soon broke out. During it, Vasily II was blinded by Shemyaka and became Dark, but ultimately victory remained on his side. With the death of Shemyaka, poisoned in Novgorod, Vasily could no longer worry about the future of his reign. During the war, Vasily Yaroslavich, who became the brother-in-law of the Moscow prince, supported him in everything. But in 1456, Vasily II ordered the arrest of a relative and sent him to prison in the city of Uglich. There the unfortunate son of Maria Goltyaeva spent 27 years until he died in 1483. His grave can be seen on the left side of the iconostasis of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral. There is also a portrait image of this prince. The children of Vasily Yaroslavich died in captivity, and his second wife and her son from her first marriage, Ivan, managed to flee to Lithuania. The family of Borovsk princes continued there for a short time.

From Maria Yaroslavna, Vasily II had several sons, including Ivan III. Thus, all representatives of the Moscow princely dynasty, starting with Vasily II and up to the sons and granddaughter of Ivan the Terrible, were descendants of the Koshkins on the female line.
Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tearing off the belt from Vasily Kosoy at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. From a painting by P.P. Chistyakova. 1861
The descendants of Fyodor Koshka successively bore the family names Koshkins, Zakharyins, Yuryevs and, finally, Romanovs. In addition to his daughter Anna and son Fyodor Goltai, mentioned above, Fyodor Koshka had sons Ivan, Alexander Bezzubets, Nikifor and Mikhail Durny. Alexander's descendants were called the Bezzubtsevs, and then the Sheremetevs and Epanchins. The Sheremetevs descend from Alexander’s grandson, Andrei Konstantinovich Sheremet, and the Epanchins from another grandson, Semyon Konstantinovich Epancha (ancient clothing in the form of a cloak was called an epancha).

The Sheremetevs are one of the most famous Russian noble families. Probably the most famous of the Sheremetevs is Boris Petrovich (1652–1719). An associate of Peter the Great, one of the first Russian field marshals (the first Russian by origin), he participated in the Crimean and Azov campaigns, became famous for his victories in the Northern War, and commanded the Russian army in the Battle of Poltava. He was one of the first to be elevated by Peter to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire (obviously, this happened in 1710). Among the descendants of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, Russian historians especially revere Count Sergei Dmitrievich (1844–1918), a prominent researcher of Russian antiquity, chairman of the Archaeographic Commission under the Ministry of Public Education, who did a lot for the publication and study of documents of the Russian Middle Ages. His wife was the granddaughter of Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, and his son Pavel Sergeevich (1871–1943) also became a famous historian and genealogist. This branch of the family owned the famous Ostafyevo near Moscow (inherited from the Vyazemskys), preserved through the efforts of Pavel Sergeevich after the revolutionary events of 1917. The descendants of Sergei Dmitrievich, who found themselves in exile, became related there with the Romanovs. This family still exists today, in particular, the descendant of Sergei Dmitrievich, Count Pyotr Petrovich, who now lives in Paris, heads the Russian Conservatory named after S.V. Rachmaninov. The Sheremetevs owned two architectural pearls near Moscow: Ostankino and Kuskovo. How can one not recall here the serf actress Praskovya Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, who became Countess Sheremeteva, and her wife Count Nikolai Petrovich (1751–1809), the founder of the famous Moscow Hospice House (now the N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Medicine is located in its building). Sergei Dmitrievich was the grandson of N.P. Sheremetev and the serf actress.

The Epanchins are less noticeable in Russian history, but they also left their mark on it. In the 19th century, representatives of this family served in the navy, and two of them, Nikolai and Ivan Petrovich, heroes of the Battle of Navarino in 1827, became Russian admirals. Their great-nephew, General Nikolai Alekseevich Epanchin (1857–1941), a famous military historian, served as director of the Corps of Pages in 1900–1907. Already in exile, he wrote interesting memoirs “In the Service of Three Emperors,” published in Russia in 1996.

Actually, the Romanov family descends from the eldest son of Fyodor Koshka, Ivan, who was a boyar of Vasily I. It was Ivan Koshka’s son Zakhary Ivanovich who identified the notorious belt in 1433 at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. Zachary had three sons, so the Koshkins were divided into three more branches. The younger ones - the Lyatskys (Lyatskys) - left to serve in Lithuania, and their traces were lost there. The eldest son of Zakhary, Yakov Zakharyevich (died in 1510), a boyar and governor under Ivan III and Vasily III, served as viceroy in Novgorod and Kolomna for some time, took part in the war with Lithuania and, in particular, took the cities of Bryansk and Putivl, which then seceded to the Russian state. The descendants of Yakov formed the noble family of the Yakovlevs. He is known for his two “illegal” representatives: in 1812, the wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767–1846) and the daughter of a German official Louise Ivanovna Haag (1795–1851), who were not legally married, had a son, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (d. . in 1870) (grandson of A.I. Herzen - Pyotr Aleksandrovich Herzen (1871–1947) - one of the largest domestic surgeons, a specialist in the field of clinical oncology). And in 1819, his brother Lev Alekseevich Yakovlev had an illegitimate son, Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (died in 1898), one of the most famous Russian photographers (who was thus A.I. Herzen’s cousin).

Zakhary's middle son, Yuri Zakharyevich (died in 1505 [?]), a boyar and governor under Ivan III, like his older brother, fought with the Lithuanians in the famous battle near the Vedrosha River in 1500. His wife was Irina Ivanovna Tuchkova, a representative of a famous noble family. The surname Romanov came from one of the sons of Yuri and Irina, the okolnichy Roman Yuryevich (died in 1543). It was his family that became related to the royal dynasty.

On February 3, 1547, the sixteen-year-old Tsar, who had been crowned king half a month earlier in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, married the daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, Anastasia. Family life Ivana and Anastasia were happy. The young wife gave her husband three sons and three daughters. Unfortunately, the daughters died in childhood. The fate of the sons was different. The eldest son Dmitry died at the age of nine months. When the royal family made a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Monastery on Beloozero, they took the little prince with them.

There was a strict ceremony at court: the baby was carried in the arms of a nanny, and she was supported by two boyars, relatives of Queen Anastasia. The journey took place along rivers and on plows. One day, the nanny with the prince and the boyars stepped onto the shaky gangplank of the plow, and, unable to resist, they all fell into the water. Dmitry choked. Then Ivan called his youngest son from his last marriage to Maria Naga. However, the fate of this boy turned out to be tragic: at the age of nine he... The name Dmitry turned out to be unlucky for the Grozny family.

The tsar’s second son, Ivan Ivanovich, had a difficult character. Cruel and domineering, he could become a complete image of his father. But in 1581, the 27-year-old prince was mortally wounded by Grozny during a quarrel. The reason for the unbridled outburst of anger was allegedly the third wife of Tsarevich Ivan (he sent the first two to the monastery) - Elena Ivanovna Sheremeteva, a distant relative of the Romanovs. Being pregnant, she appeared to her father-in-law in a light shirt, “in an indecent appearance.” The king beat his daughter-in-law, who later had a miscarriage. Ivan stood up for his wife and immediately received a blow to the temple with an iron staff. A few days later he died, and Elena was tonsured with the name Leonidas in one of the monasteries.

After the death of the heir, Ivan the Terrible was succeeded by his third son from Anastasia, Fedor. In 1584 he became the Tsar of Moscow. Fyodor Ivanovich was distinguished by a quiet and meek disposition. He was disgusted by the cruel tyranny of his father, and he spent a significant part of his reign in prayers and fasts, atonement for the sins of his ancestors. Such a high spiritual attitude of the tsar seemed strange to his subjects, which is why the popular legend about Fedor’s dementia appeared. In 1598, he serenely fell asleep forever, and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov took over the throne. Fyodor's only daughter Theodosia died before reaching the age of two. Thus ended the offspring of Anastasia Romanovna.
With her kind, gentle character, Anastasia restrained the king’s cruel temper. But in August 1560 the queen died. An analysis of her remains, now located in the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral, already carried out in our time, showed a high probability that Anastasia was poisoned. After her death, a new stage began in the life of Ivan the Terrible: the era of Oprichnina and lawlessness.

Ivan's marriage to Anastasia brought her relatives to the forefront of Moscow politics. The queen’s brother, Nikita Romanovich (died in 1586), was especially popular. He became famous as a talented commander and brave warrior during the Livonian War, rose to the rank of boyar and was one of the close associates of Ivan the Terrible. He was part of the inner circle of Tsar Fedor. Shortly before his death, Nikita took monastic vows with the name Nifont. Was married twice. His first wife, Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina, came from the Khovrin-Golovin family, which later produced several famous figures in Russian history, including Peter I’s associate, Admiral Fyodor Alekseevich Golovin. Nikita Romanovich’s second wife, Princess Evdokia Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya, belonged to the descendants of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Rurikovichs. Nikita Romanovich lived in his chambers on Varvarka Street in Moscow, where in the middle of the 19th century. a museum was opened.

Seven sons and five daughters of Nikita Romanovich continued this boyar family. For a long time, researchers doubted from which marriage of Nikita Romanovich his eldest son Fyodor Nikitich, the future Patriarch Filaret, the father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, was born. After all, if his mother was Princess Gorbataya-Shuiskaya, then the Romanovs are thus descendants of the Rurikovichs through the female line. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, historians assumed that Fyodor Nikitich was most likely born from his father’s first marriage. And only in last years this issue appears to have been finally resolved. During the study of the Romanov necropolis in the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, the tombstone of Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina was discovered. In the tombstone epitaph, the year of her death should perhaps be read as 7063, i.e. 1555 (she died on June 29), and not 7060 (1552), as previously believed. This dating removes the question of the origin of Fyodor Nikitich, who died in 1633, being “more than 80 years old.” The ancestors of Varvara Ivanovna and, therefore, the ancestors of the entire royal House of Romanov, the Khovrins, came from the trading people of the Crimean Sudak and had Greek roots.

Fyodor Nikitich Romanov served as a regimental commander, took part in campaigns against the cities of Koporye, Yam and Ivangorod during the successful Russian-Swedish war of 1590–1595, defended the southern borders of Russia from Crimean raids. A prominent position at court made it possible for the Romanovs to become related to other then-known families: the princes of Sitsky, Cherkasy, as well as the Godunovs (Boris Fedorovich’s nephew married Nikita Romanovich’s daughter, Irina). But these family ties did not save the Romanovs from disgrace after the death of their benefactor Tsar Fedor.

With his accession to the throne, everything changed. Hating the entire Romanov family and fearing them as potential rivals in the struggle for power, the new tsar began to eliminate his opponents one by one. In 1600–1601, repression fell on the Romanovs. Fyodor Nikitich was forcibly tonsured a monk (under the name Filaret) and sent to the distant Anthony Siysky Monastery in Arkhangelsk district. The same fate befell his wife Ksenia Ivanovna Shestova. Tonsured under the name of Martha, she was exiled to the Tolvuisky churchyard in Zaonezhye, and then lived with her children in the village of Klin, Yuryevsky district. Her young daughter Tatyana and son Mikhail (the future Tsar) were taken to prison on Beloozero along with her aunt Anastasia Nikitichna, who later became the wife of a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky. Fyodor Nikitich's brother, boyar Alexander, was exiled on a false denunciation to one of the villages of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, where he was killed. Another brother, the okolnichy Mikhail, also died in disgrace, transported from Moscow to the remote Perm village of Nyrob. There he died in prison and in chains from hunger. Another son of Nikita, steward Vasily, died in the city of Pelym, where he and his brother Ivan were kept chained to the wall. And their sisters Efimiya (monastically Evdokia) and Martha went into exile together with their husbands - the princes of Sitsky and Cherkassy. Only Martha survived imprisonment. Thus, almost the entire Romanov family was destroyed. Miraculously, only Ivan Nikitich, nicknamed Kasha, survived, returned after a short exile.

But the Godunov dynasty was not allowed to rule in Rus'. The fire of the Great Troubles was already flaring up, and in this seething cauldron the Romanovs emerged from oblivion. The active and energetic Fyodor Nikitich (Filaret) returned to “big” politics at the first opportunity - False Dmitry I made his benefactor Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl. The fact is that Grigory Otrepiev was once his servant. There is even a version that the Romanovs specially prepared the ambitious adventurer for the role of the “legitimate” heir to the Moscow throne. Be that as it may, Filaret took a prominent place in the church hierarchy.

He made a new career “leap” with the help of another impostor - False Dmitry II, the “Tushinsky Thief”. In 1608, during the capture of Rostov, the Tushins captured Filaret and brought the impostor to the camp. False Dmitry invited him to become patriarch, and Filaret agreed. In Tushino, in general, a kind of second capital was formed: it had its own king, it had its own boyars, its own orders, and now also its own patriarch (in Moscow, the patriarchal throne was occupied by Hermogenes). When the Tushino camp collapsed, Filaret managed to return to Moscow, where he participated in the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The Seven Boyars that formed after this included the younger brother of the “patriarch” Ivan Nikitich Romanov, who received the boyars on the day of Otrepiev’s crowning. As is known, the new government decided to invite the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne and concluded a corresponding agreement with Hetman Stanislav Zolkiewski, and in order to settle all the formalities, a “great embassy” was sent from Moscow to Smolensk, where the king was located, headed by Filaret. However, negotiations with King Sigismund reached a dead end, the ambassadors were arrested and sent to Poland. There, in captivity, Filaret remained until 1619 and only after the conclusion of the Deulin truce and the end of the many years of war did he return to Moscow. His son Mikhail was already the Russian Tsar.
Filaret had now become the “legitimate” Moscow Patriarch and had a very significant influence on the policies of the young tsar. He showed himself to be a very powerful and at times even tough person. His court was built on the model of the royal one, and for administration land holdings several special, patriarchal orders were formed. Filaret also cared about education, resuming the printing of liturgical books in Moscow after the ruin. He paid great attention to issues foreign policy and even created one of the diplomatic ciphers of that time.

Fedor-Filaret's wife Ksenia Ivanovna came from ancient family Shestov. Their ancestor was considered to be Mikhail Prushanin, or, as he was also called, Misha, an associate of Alexander Nevsky. He was also the founder of such famous families as the Morozovs, Saltykovs, Sheins, Tuchkovs, Cheglokovs, Scriabins. Misha's descendants became related to the Romanovs back in the 15th century, since the mother of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin was one of the Tuchkovs. By the way, the Shestovs’ ancestral estates included the Kostroma village of Domnino, where Ksenia and her son Mikhail lived for some time after the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. The headman of this village, Ivan Susanin, became famous for saving the young king from death at the cost of his life. After her son’s accession to the throne, the “great old lady” Martha helped him in governing the country until his father, Filaret, returned from captivity.

Ksenia-Marfa had a kind character. So, remembering the widows of previous tsars who lived in monasteries - Ivan the Terrible, Vasily Shuisky, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - she repeatedly sent them gifts. She often went on pilgrimages, was strict in matters of religion, but did not shy away from the joys of life: in the Ascension Kremlin Monastery she organized a gold-embroidery workshop, which produced beautiful fabrics and clothes for the royal court.
Mikhail Fedorovich's uncle Ivan Nikitich (died in 1640) also occupied a prominent place at his nephew's court. With the death of his son, boyar and butler Nikita Ivanovich in 1654, all other branches of the Romanovs, except for the royal offspring of Mikhail Fedorovich, were cut short. The ancestral tomb of the Romanovs was the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, where in recent years much work has been carried out to study and restore this ancient necropolis. As a result, many ancestral burials were identified royal dynasty, and from some of the remains, experts even recreated portrait images, including those of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, the great-grandfather of Tsar Mikhail.

The Romanov family coat of arms dates back to Livonian heraldry and was created in the mid-19th century. the outstanding Russian heraldist Baron B.V. Köne based on emblematic images found on objects that belonged to the Romanovs in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries. The description of the coat of arms is as follows:
“In a silver field is a scarlet vulture holding a golden sword and tarch, crowned with a small eagle; on the black border are eight severed lion heads: four gold and four silver.”

Evgeny Vladimirovich Pchelov
Romanovs. History of a great dynasty

400 years ago, the first ruler of the Romanov family, Mikhail Fedorovich, reigned in Russia. His ascension to the throne marked the end of the Russian Troubles, and his descendants were to rule the state for another three centuries, expanding the borders and strengthening the power of the country, which thanks to them became an empire. We remember this date with an associate professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities, head of the department of auxiliary historical disciplines, author of the books “The Romanovs. History of the dynasty", "Genealogy of the Romanovs. 1613-2001" and many others by Evgeny Pchelov.

- Evgeny Vladimirovich, where did the Romanov family come from?

The Romanovs are an ancient family of Moscow boyars, the origins of which go back to the first half of the 14th century, when the earliest ancestor of the Romanovs lived, Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla, who served Semyon Proud, the eldest son of Ivan Kalita. Thus, the Romanovs are associated with the family of the Great Moscow Princes almost from the very beginning of this dynasty; this, one might say, is the “indigenous” family of the Moscow aristocracy. The earlier ancestors of the Romanovs, before Andrei Kobyla, are unknown to chronicle sources. Much later, in the 17th – 18th centuries, when the Romanovs were in power, a legend arose about their foreign origin, and this legend was created not by the Romanovs themselves, but by their relatives, i.e. descendants of clans of the same origin as the Romanovs - the Kolychevs, Sheremetevs, etc. According to this legend, the ancestor of the Romanovs allegedly left for Rus' “from Prussian”, i.e. from the Prussian land, once inhabited by the Prussians - one of the Baltic tribes. His name was allegedly Glanda Kambila, and in Rus' he became Ivan Kobyla, the father of that same Andrei, who was known at the court of Semyon the Proud. It is clear that Glanda Kambila is a completely artificial name, distorted from Ivan Kobyla. Such legends about the departures of ancestors from other countries were commonplace among the Russian nobility. Of course, this legend has no basis in reality.

- How did they become the Romanovs?

The descendants of Fyodor Koshka’s grandson, Zakhary Ivanovich, were nicknamed the Zakharyins, his son, Yuri, was the father of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, and on behalf of Roman the surname Romanovs was formed. In fact, these were all generic nicknames, derived from patronymics and grandfatherings. So the Romanov surname has a rather traditional origin for Russian surnames.

- Were the Romanovs related to the Rurik dynasty?

They became related to the dynasties of the Tver and Serpukhov princes, and through the branch of the Serpukhov princes they found themselves in direct kinship with the Moscow Rurikovichs. Ivan III was the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka on his mother’s side, i.e. starting with him, the Moscow Rurikovichs were descendants of Andrei Kobyla, but Kobyla’s descendants, the Romanovs, were not descendants of the family of Moscow princes. IN 1547 g . The first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yuryeva, daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, who is often incorrectly called a boyar, although he did not have this rank. From his marriage to Anastasia Romanovna, Ivan the Terrible had several children, including Tsarevich Ivan, who died in a quarrel with his father in 1581 g ., and Fedor, who became king in 1584 g . Fyodor Ioannovich was the last of the dynasty of Moscow kings - the Rurikovichs. His uncle Nikita Romanovich, Anastasia’s brother, enjoyed great fame at the court of Ivan the Terrible, Nikita’s son, Fyodor, later became Moscow Patriarch Filaret, and his grandson, Mikhail, became the first tsar from the new dynasty, elected to the throne in 1613

- Were there other contenders for the throne in 1613?

It is known that that year, at the Zemsky Sobor, which was supposed to choose a new king, the names of several contenders were heard. The most authoritative boyar at that time was Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Mstislavsky, who headed the seven-boyars. He was a distant descendant of Ivan III through his daughter, i.e. was a royal relative. According to sources, the leaders of the Zemstvo militia, Prince Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy (who spent heavily during the Zemsky Council) and Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky, also claimed the throne. There were other notable representatives of the Russian aristocracy.

- Why was Mikhail Fedorovich elected?

Of course, Mikhail Fedorovich was a very young man, he could be controlled, and he stood outside the court groups fighting for power. But the main thing is the family connection of Mikhail Fedorovich and the Romanovs with Tsar Fedor Ivanovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible. Fyodor Ivanovich was perceived at that moment as the last “legitimate” Moscow Tsar, the last representative of the real Tsar’s “root”. His personality and reign were idealized, as always happens after an era of bloody crimes, and the return to the interrupted tradition seemed to restore those quiet and calm times. It was not for nothing that the zemstvo militia minted coins with the name of Fyodor Ivanovich, who had already been dead for 15 years by that time. Mikhail Fedorovich was the nephew of Tsar Fedor - he was perceived as a kind of “reincarnation” of Fedor, a continuation of his era. And although the Romanovs had no direct relationship with the Rurikovichs, great importance had just inherent and family ties through marriages. The direct descendants of the Rurikovichs, be they the Pozharsky princes or the Vorotynsky princes, were not perceived as part of the royal family, but only as subjects of the royal dynasty, which in its status rose above its peers. That is why the Romanovs turned out to be the closest relatives of the last of the Moscow Rurikovichs. Mikhail Fedorovich himself did not take any part in the work of the Zemsky Sobor and learned about its decision when an embassy came to him with an invitation to the throne. It must be said that he and especially his mother, nun Martha, stubbornly refused such an honor. But then, succumbing to persuasion, they finally agreed. Thus began the reign of a new dynasty - the Romanovs.

- Who are the most famous representatives of the House of Romanov today? What are they doing?

Now the Romanov clan, we will talk specifically about the clan, is not very numerous. Representatives of the generation of the 1920s, the first generation of Romanovs born in emigration, are still alive. The oldest today are Nikolai Romanovich, living in Switzerland, Andrei Andreevich, living in the USA, and Dmitry Romanovich, living in Denmark. The first two recently turned 90 years old. All of them came to Russia several times. Together with their younger relatives and some female Romanov descendants (like Prince Michael of Kent, for example), they make up public organization"Association of members of the Romanov family." There is also a Romanov assistance fund for Russia, which is headed by Dimitri Romanovich. However, the activities of the Association in Russia, at least, are not too strongly felt. Among the members of the association there are also very young people, like Rostislav Rostislavich Romanov, for example. A notable figure is the descendant of Alexander II from his second, morganatic marriage, His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky. He lives in Switzerland and St. Petersburg, where he often visits. There is the family of the late Prince Vladimir Kirillovich - his daughter Maria Vladimirovna and her son from her marriage to the Prussian prince Georgy Mikhailovich. This family considers itself legitimate contenders for the throne; it does not recognize all the other Romanovs and behaves accordingly. Maria Vladimirovna makes “official visits”, favors the nobility and orders of old Russia and in every possible way presents herself as the “Head of the Russian Imperial House”. It is clear that this activity has a very definite ideological and political connotation. The family of Vladimir Kirillovich is seeking some kind of special legal status for itself in Russia, the rights to which are being very convincingly questioned by many. There are other descendants of the Romanovs, more or less noticeable, such as Paul Edward Larsen, who now calls himself Pavel Eduardovich Kulikovsky - the great-grandson of the sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. He often appears at numerous events and presentations as a guest. But as such, almost none of the Romanovs and their descendants conduct meaningful and useful activities in Russia.

Perhaps the only exception is Olga Nikolaevna Kulikovskaya-Romanova. By origin, she does not belong to the Romanov family, but is the widow of Nicholas II’s own nephew, Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovsky-Romanov, the eldest son of the already mentioned Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. It must be said that her activities in Russia, unlike her other relatives, are extremely active and productive. Olga Nikolaevna heads the Charitable Foundation named after V.kn. Olga Alexandrovna, which was founded by her together with her late husband Tikhon Nikolaevich, who lived in Canada. Now Olga Nikolaevna spends even more time in Russia than in Canada. The Foundation has carried out enormous charitable work, over the years of its existence providing real assistance to many medical and social institutions in Russia, the Solovetsky Monastery, etc., right down to individual individuals in need of such assistance. In recent years, Olga Nikolaevna has been implementing a large cultural activities, regularly organizing exhibitions of artistic works of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna in different cities of the country, who was engaged in painting a lot and fruitfully. This side of the history of the royal family was completely unknown until recently. Now exhibitions of the Grand Duchess’s works were held not only in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, but also in centers remote from the capitals such as Tyumen or Vladivostok. Olga Nikolaevna has traveled almost all of Russia, she is well known in many parts of our country. Of course, she is a completely unique person, literally charging everyone who has encountered her with her energy. Her fate is very interesting - after all, before the Second World War, she studied at the Mariinsky Don Institute, formed even before the revolution in Novocherkassk following the example of the famous Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, and in exile was located in the Serbian city of Bila Tserkva. The excellent upbringing in a Russian family of first-wave emigrants and education in this educational institution could not but affect Olga Nikolaevna’s personality; she told me a lot about this period of her biography. She knew, of course, the Romanovs of the older generation, for example, the daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, the famous poet K.R. – Princess Vera Konstantinovna, with whom she and Tikhon Nikolaevich had friendly relations.

Each page of history holds its own lessons for future generations. What lesson does the history of the Romanovs’ reign teach us?

I believe that the most important thing that the Romanovs did for Russia is the emergence of the Russian Empire, a great European power with great culture and science. Even if they know Russia abroad (precisely Russia, not Soviet Union), then by the names of those people who lived and worked during this period. We can say that it was under the Romanovs that Russia stood on a par with the leading world powers, and on absolutely equal terms. This was one of the highest rises of our country in the entire history of its diverse existence. And the Romanovs played a very big role in this, for which we can be sincerely grateful to them.

The Romanovs are a boyar family,

from 1613 - royal,

from 1721 - the imperial dynasty in Russia, ruling until March 1917.

The founder of the Romanovs is Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla.

ANDREY IVANOVICH MARY

FEDOR CAT

IVAN FYODOROVICH KOSHKIN

ZACHARY IVANOVICH KOSHKIN

YURI ZAKHARIEVICH KOSHKIN-ZAKHARIEV

ROMAN YURIEVICH ZAKHARIN-YURIEV

FEDOR NIKITICH ROMANOV

MIKHAIL III FEDOROVYCH

ALEXEY MIKHAILOVICH

FEDOR ALEXEEVICH

JOHN V ALEXEEVICH

PETER I ALEXEEVICH

EKATERINA I ALEKSEEVNA

PETER II ALEXEEVICH

ANNA IOANNOVNA

JOHN VI ANTONOVICH

ELIZAVETA PETROVNA

PETER III FYODOROVICH

EKATERINA II ALEKSEEVNA

PAUL I PETROVICH

ALEXANDER I PAVLOVICH

NICHOLAY I PAVLOVICH

ALEXANDER II NIKOLAEVICH

ALEXANDER III ALEXANDROVICH

NICHOLAY II ALEXANDROVICH

NIKOLAY III ALEXEEVICH

ANDREY IVANOVICH MARY

Boyar of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan I Kalita and his son Simeon the Proud. It is mentioned in the chronicles only once: in 1347 he was sent with the boyar Alexei Rozolov to Tver for a bride for the Grand Duke of Moscow Simeon the Proud, Princess Maria. According to pedigree lists, he had five sons. According to Kopenhausen, he was the only son of Glanda-Kambiloy Divonovich, Prince of Prussia, who went with him to Russia in the last quarter of the 13th century. and received St. baptism with the name Ivan in 1287

FEDOR CAT

Direct ancestor of the Romanovs and the noble families of the Sheremetevs (later counts). He was a boyar of Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and his heir. During Dmitry Donskoy's campaign against Mamai (1380), Moscow and the sovereign's family were left in his care. He was the governor of Novgorod (1393).

In the first generation, Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla and his sons were called Kobylins. Fyodor Andreevich Koshka, his son Ivan and the latter’s son Zakhary are the Koshkins.

The descendants of Zakhary were called the Koshkins-Zakharyins, and then they dropped the nickname Koshkins and began to be called the Zakharyins-Yuryevs. The children of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin-Yuryev began to be called the Zakharyin-Romanovs, and the descendants of Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Romanov - simply the Romanovs.

IVAN FEDOROVICH KOSHKIN (died after 1425)

Moscow boyar, eldest son of Fyodor Koshka. He was close to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and especially to his son, Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich (1389-1425)

ZACHARIY IVANOVICH KOSHKIN (died ca. 1461)

Moscow boyar, eldest son of Ivan Koshka, fourth son of the previous one. Mentioned in 1433, when he was at the wedding of Grand Duke Vasily the Dark. Participant in the war with the Lithuanians (1445)

YURI ZAKHARIEVICH KOSHKIN-ZAKHARIEV (died 1504)

Moscow boyar, second son of Zakhary Koshkin, grandfather of Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Romanov and the first wife of Tsar John IV Vasilyevich the Terrible, Queen Anastasia. In 1485 and 1499 participated in campaigns against Kazan. In 1488, he was governor in Novgorod. In 1500 he commanded the Moscow army directed against Lithuania and took Dorogobuzh.

ROMAN YURIEVICH ZAKHARIN-YURIEV (died 1543)

Okolnichy, was a commander in the campaign of 1531. He had several sons and a daughter, Anastasia, who in 1547 became the wife of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible. From this time on, the rise of the Zakharyin family began. Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Romanov (d. 1587) - grandfather of the first tsar from the house of Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich, boyar (1562), participant in the Swedish campaign of 1551, active participant in the Livonian War. After the death of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, as the closest relative - the uncle of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, he headed the regency council (until the end of 1584). He accepted monasticism with the estate of Nifont.

FEDOR NIKITICH ROMANOV (1553-1633)

In monasticism, Filaret, Russian politician, patriarch (1619), father of the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.

MIKHAIL III FEDOROVYCH (07/12/1596 - 02/13/1645)

Tsar, Grand Duke all Rus'. Son of boyar Fyodor Nikitich Romanov, Patriarch Filaret, from his marriage to Ksenia Ivanovna Shestova (monastically Marfa). He was elected to the throne on February 21, accepted the throne on March 14, and was crowned king on July 11, 1613.

Mikhail Fedorovich, together with his parents, fell into disgrace under Boris Godunov and in June 1601 was exiled with his aunts to Beloozero, where he lived until the end of 1602. In 1603 he was transported to the city of Klin, Kostroma province. Under False Dmitry I he lived with his mother in Rostov, from 1608 with the rank of steward. He was a prisoner of the Poles in the Kremlin besieged by the Russians.

Weak as a person and in poor health, Mikhail Fedorovich could not independently govern the state; Initially it was led by the mother, nun Martha, and her relatives, the Saltykovs, then from 1619 to 1633 by the father, Patriarch Filaret.

In February 1617, a peace treaty between Russia and Sweden was concluded. In 1618, the Deulin truce with Poland was concluded. In 1621, Mikhail Fedorovich issued the “Charter of Military Affairs”; in 1628, Nitsinsky (Turin district of Tobolsk province) organized the first in Rus'. In 1629, a labor agreement was concluded with France. In 1632, Mikhail Fedorovich resumed the war with Poland and was successful; in 1632 he formed the order of the Gathering of military and sufficient people. In 1634 the war with Poland ended. In 1637 he ordered that criminals be branded and that pregnant criminals not be executed until six weeks after giving birth. A 10-year period was established for the search for fugitive peasants. The number of orders was increased, the number of clerks and their importance increased. Intensive construction of abatis against the Crimean Tatars was carried out. Further development of Siberia took place.

Tsar Michael was married twice: 1) to Princess Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukaya; 2) on Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva. There were no children from the first marriage, but from the second there were 3 sons, including the future Tsar Alexei and seven daughters.

ALEXEY MIKHAILOVICH (03/19/1629 – 01/29/1676)

Tsar since July 13, 1645, son of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva. He ascended the throne after the death of his father. Crowned September 28, 1646

Frightened by the Moscow turmoil on May 25, 1648, he ordered the collection of a new Code on the indefinite search for fugitive peasants, etc., which he promulgated on January 29, 1649. On July 25, 1652, he elevated the famous Nikon to patriarch. On January 8, 1654, he took the oath of citizenship of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky (reunification of Ukraine with Russia), which was involved in the war with Poland, which he brilliantly completed in 1655, receiving the titles of Sovereign of Polotsk and Mstislav, Grand Duke of Lithuania, White Russia, Volyn and Podolsky The campaign against the Swedes in Livonia in 1656 did not end so happily. In 1658, Alexei Mikhailovich separated from Patriarch Nikon; on December 12, 1667, a council in Moscow deposed him.

Under Alexei Mikhailovich, the development of Siberia continued, where new cities were founded: Nerchinsk (1658), Irkutsk (1659), Selenginsk (1666).

Alexey Mikhailovich persistently developed and implemented the idea of ​​​​unlimited royal power. The convenings of Zemsky Sobors are gradually being stopped.

Alexei Mikhailovich died in Moscow on January 29, 1676. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was married twice: 1) to Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. From this marriage, Alexei Mikhailovich had 13 children, including the future Tsars Fyodor and John V and the ruler Sophia. 2) on Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. This marriage produced three children, including the future Tsar and then Emperor Peter I the Great.

FEDOR ALEXEEVICH (05/30/1661-04/27/1682)

Tsar since January 30, 1676, son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from his first wife Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. Crowned June 18, 1676

Fyodor Alekseevich was a widely educated man, he knew Polish and Latin. He became one of the founders of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and was fond of music.

Weak and sickly by nature, Fyodor Alekseevich easily succumbed to influence.

The government of Fyodor Alekseevich carried out a number of reforms: in 1678 a general census was carried out; in 1679, household taxation was introduced, which increased tax oppression; in 1682, localism was destroyed and, in connection with this, rank books were burned. This put an end to the dangerous custom of boyars and nobles to consider the merits of their ancestors when occupying a position. Genealogical books were introduced.

In foreign policy, the first place was occupied by the issue of Ukraine, namely the struggle between Doroshenko and Samoilovich, which caused the so-called Chigirin campaigns.

In 1681, the entire Dnieper region, which was devastated at that time, was concluded between Moscow, Turkey and Crimea.

On July 14, 1681, Fyodor Alekseevich’s wife, Tsarina Agafya, died along with the newborn Tsarevich Ilya. On February 14, 1682, the tsar married Maria Matveevna Apraksina for the second time. On April 27, Fyodor Alekseevich died, leaving no children.

JOHN V ALEXEEVICH (08/27/1666 – 01/29/1696)

The son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his first wife Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya.

After the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (1682), the party of the Naryshkins, relatives of the second wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, achieved the proclamation of John’s younger brother Peter as tsar, which was a violation of the right of succession to the throne by seniority adopted in the Moscow state.

However, the archers, influenced by rumors that the Naryshkins strangled Ivan Alekseevich, rebelled on May 23. Despite the fact that Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna brought Tsar Peter I and Tsarevich John to the Red Porch to show the people, the archers, incited by the Miloslavskys, defeated the Naryshkin party and demanded the proclamation of John Alekseevich on the throne. A council of clergy and higher ranks decided to allow dual power and John Alekseevich was also proclaimed tsar. On May 26, the Duma declared Ivan Alekseevich the first, and Peter the second tsar, and due to the minority of the tsars, their elder sister Sophia was proclaimed ruler.

On June 25, 1682, the crowning of Tsars John V and Peter I Alekseevich took place. After 1689 (the imprisonment of the ruler Sophia in the Novodevichy Convent) and until his death, John Alekseevich was considered an equal king. However, in fact, John V did not participate in government affairs and remained “in unceasing prayer and firm fasting.”

In 1684, Ivan Alekseevich married Praskovya Fedorovna Saltykova. From this marriage four daughters were born, including Empress Anna Ioannovna and Ekaterina Ioannovna, whose grandson ascended the throne in 1740 under the name Ioann Antonovich.

At the age of 27, Ivan Alekseevich was paralyzed and had poor vision. On January 29, 1696, he died suddenly. After his death, Pyotr Alekseevich remained the sole tsar. There was no other case in Russia of the simultaneous reign of two kings.

PETER I ALEXEEVICH (05/30/1672-01/28/1725)

Tsar (April 27, 1682), emperor (from October 22, 1721), statesman, commander and diplomat. The son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from his second marriage to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina.

Peter I, after the death of his childless brother, Tsar Feodor III, through the efforts of Patriarch Joachim, was elected tsar, bypassing his older brother John on April 27, 1682. In May 1682, after the mutiny of the Streltsy, the sickly John V Alekseevich was declared the “senior” tsar, and Peter I - “junior” king under the ruler Sophia.

Until 1689, Pyotr Alekseevich lived with his mother in the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, where in 1683 he started “amusing” regiments (the future Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments). In 1688, Peter I began to study mathematics and fortification from the Dutchman Franz Timmerman. In August 1689, having received news of Sophia’s preparation for a palace coup, Pyotr Alekseevich, together with troops loyal to him, surrounded Moscow. Sophia was removed from power and imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent. After the death of Ivan Alekseevich, Peter I became the sovereign tsar.

Peter I created a clear state structure: the peasantry serves the nobility, being in a state of their full ownership. The nobility, financially supported by the state, serves the monarch. The monarch, relying on the nobility, serves the interests of the state as a whole. And the peasant presented his service to the nobleman - the landowner as an indirect service to the state.

The reform activities of Peter I took place in a sharp struggle with the reactionary opposition. In 1698, the rebellion of the Moscow Streltsy in favor of Sophia was brutally suppressed (1,182 people were executed), and in February 1699 the Moscow Streltsy regiments were disbanded. Sophia was tonsured a nun. In a disguised form, resistance to the opposition continued until 1718 (conspiracy of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich).

The transformations of Peter I affected all areas public life, contributed to the growth of the trading and manufacturing bourgeoisie. The Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714 equalized estates and fiefdoms, giving their owners the right to transfer real estate to one of their sons.

The “Table of Ranks” of 1722 established the order of ranks in the military and civil service not according to nobility, but according to personal abilities and merits.

Under Peter I there arose a large number of manufactories and mining enterprises, the development of new iron ore deposits and the extraction of non-ferrous metals began.

The reforms of the state apparatus under Peter I were an important step towards transforming the Russian autocracy of the 17th century. into the bureaucratic-noble monarchy of the 18th century. The place of the Boyar Duma was taken by the Senate (1711), instead of orders, collegiums were established (1718), and the control apparatus began to be represented by prosecutors headed by the Prosecutor General. In place of the patriarchate, the Spiritual College, or Holy Synod, was established. The Secret Chancellery was in charge of political investigation.

In 1708-1709 instead of counties and voivodeships, provinces were established. In 1703, Peter I founded new town, calling it St. Petersburg, which became the capital of the state in 1712. In 1721, Russia was proclaimed an Empire, and Peter was proclaimed emperor.

In 1695, Peter’s campaign against Azov ended in failure, but on July 18, 1696, Azov was taken. On March 10, 1699, Peter Alekseevich established the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. On November 19, 1700, the troops of Peter I were defeated near Narva by the Swedish king Charles XII. In 1702, Pyotr Alekseevich began to beat the Swedes and on October 11 took Noteburg by storm. In 1704, Peter I captured Dorpat, Narva and Ivan-gorod. On June 27, 1709, a victory was won over Charles XII near Poltava. Peter I defeated the Swedes in Schleswing and began the conquest of Finland in 1713; on July 27, 1714, he won a brilliant naval victory over the Swedes at Cape Gangud. The Persian campaign undertaken by Peter I in 1722-1723. assigned to Russia the western coast of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku.

Peter founded the Pushkar School (1699), the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences (1701), the Medical and Surgical School, the Naval Academy (1715), engineering and artillery schools (1719), and the first Russian museum, the Kunstkamera (1719), was opened. Since 1703, the first Russian printed newspaper, Vedomosti, was published. In 1724, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was founded. Expeditions were carried out to Central Asia, Far East, to Siberia. During the era of Peter, fortresses were built (Kronstadt, Petropavlovskaya). The beginning of city planning was laid.

Peter I knew from a young age German, and then independently studied Dutch, English and French. In 1688-1693. Pyotr Alekseevich learned to build ships. In 1697-1698 in Konigsberg he completed a full course in artillery science, and worked as a carpenter in the shipyards of Amsterdam for six months. Peter knew fourteen crafts and was fond of surgery.

In 1724, Peter I became very ill, but continued to lead an active lifestyle, which accelerated his death. Pyotr Alekseevich died on January 28, 1725.

Peter I was married twice: with his first marriage - to Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, with whom he had 3 sons, including Tsarevich Alexei, executed in 1718, the other two died in infancy; second marriage - to Martha Skavronskaya (baptized Ekaterina Alekseevna - the future Empress Catherine I), from whom he had 9 children. Most of them, with the exception of Anna and Elizabeth (later empress), died young.

EKATERINA I ALEXEEVNA (04/05/1684 – 05/06/1727)

Empress from January 28, 1725. She ascended the throne after the death of her husband, Emperor Peter I. She was declared Tsarina on March 6, 1721, and crowned on May 7, 1724.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was born into the family of a Lithuanian peasant Samuil Skavronsky, and before accepting Orthodoxy she bore the name Martha. She lived in Marienburg in the service of Superintendent Gmok, and was captured by the Russians during the capture of Marienburg by Field Marshal Sheremetyev on August 25, 1702. She was taken away from Sheremetyev by A.D. Menshikov. In 1703, Peter I saw it and took it from Menshikov. From then on, Peter I did not part with Martha (Catherine) until the end of his life.

Peter and Catherine had 3 sons and 6 daughters, almost all of them died in early childhood. Only two daughters survived - Anna (b. 1708) and Elizaveta (b. 1709). The church marriage of Peter I with Catherine was formalized only on February 19, 1712, thus both daughters were considered illegitimate.

In 1716 - 1718 Ekaterina Alekseevna accompanied her husband on a trip abroad; followed with him to Astrakhan in the Persian campaign of 1722. Having ascended the throne after the death of Emperor Peter I, she established the Order of St. on May 21, 1725. Alexander Nevsky. On October 12, 1725, she sent Count Vladislavich's embassy to China.

During the reign of Catherine I, according to the plans of Peter I the Great, the following was done:

A naval expedition under Captain-Commander Vitus Bering was sent to resolve the question of whether Asia is united with North America isthmus;

The Academy of Sciences was opened, the plan of which was announced by Peter I back in 1724;

Due to direct instructions found in the papers of Peter I, it was decided to continue drawing up the Code;

A detailed explanation of the law on inheritance of real estate has been published;

It is forbidden to become a monk without a synodical decree;

A few days before her death, Catherine I signed a will transferring the throne to Peter I’s grandson, Peter II.

Catherine I died in St. Petersburg on May 6, 1727. She was buried along with the body of Peter I in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on May 21, 1731.

PETER II ALEXEEVICH (10/12/1715 – 01/18/1730)

Emperor from May 7, 1727, crowned February 25, 1728. Son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and Princess Charlotte-Christina-Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel: grandson of Peter I and Evdokia Lopukhina. He ascended the throne after the death of Empress Catherine I according to her will.

Little Peter lost his mother at the age of 10 days. Peter I paid little attention to the upbringing of his grandson, making it clear that he did not want this child to ever ascend the throne and issue a Decree according to which the emperor could choose his own successor. As you know, the emperor was unable to take advantage of this right, and his wife, Catherine I, ascended the throne, and she, in turn, signed a will transferring the throne to the grandson of Peter I.

On May 25, 1727, Peter II became engaged to the daughter of Prince Menshikov. Immediately after the death of Catherine I, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov moved the young emperor to his palace, and on May 25, 1727, Peter II became engaged to the prince’s daughter, Maria Menshikova. But the communication of the young emperor with the Dolgoruky princes, who managed to attract Peter II to their side with the temptations of balls, hunts and other pleasures, which were prohibited by Menshikov, greatly weakened the influence of Alexander Danilovich. And already on September 9, 1727, Prince Menshikov, deprived of his ranks, was exiled with his entire family to Ranienburg (Ryazan province). On April 16, 1728, Peter II signed a decree exiling Menshikov and his entire family to Berezov (Tobolsk province). On November 30, 1729, Peter II became engaged to the beautiful princess Ekaterina Dolgoruky, the sister of his favorite, Prince Ivan Dolgoruky. The wedding was scheduled for January 19, 1730, but on January 6 he caught a bad cold, smallpox broke out the next day, and on January 19, 1730, Peter II died.

Talk about independent activity Peter II, who died at the age of 16, is impossible; he was constantly under one influence or another. After Menshikov’s exile, Peter II, under the influence of the old boyar aristocracy led by Dolgoruky, declared himself an opponent of the reforms of Peter I. The institutions created by his grandfather were destroyed.

With the death of Peter II, the Romanov family in the male line came to an end.

ANNA IOANNOVNA (01/28/1693 – 10/17/1740)

Empress since January 19, 1730, daughter of Tsar Ivan V Alekseevich and Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna Saltykova. She declared herself autocratic empress on February 25, and was crowned on April 28, 1730.

Princess Anna did not receive the necessary education and upbringing; she forever remained illiterate. Peter I married her to the Duke of Courland, Frederick William, on October 31, 1710, but on January 9, 1711, Anna was widowed. During her stay in Courland (1711-1730), Anna Ioannovna lived mainly in Mittawa. In 1727 she became close to E.I. Biron, with whom she did not part until the end of her life.

Immediately after the death of Peter II, members of the Supreme Privy Council, when deciding on the transfer of the Russian throne, chose the widow Duchess of Courland Anna Ioannovna, subject to the limitation of autocratic power. Anna Ioannovna accepted these proposals (“conditions”), but already on March 4, 1730, she broke the “conditions” and destroyed the Supreme Privy Council.

In 1730, Anna Ioannovna established Life Guard regiments: Izmailovsky - September 22 and Horse - December 30. With her military service was limited to 25 years. By decree of March 17, 1731, the law on single inheritance (primorates) was abolished. On April 6, 1731, Anna Ioannovna renewed the terrible Preobrazhensky order (“word and deed”).

During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the Russian army fought in Poland, waged war with Turkey, devastating Crimea during 1736-1739.

The extraordinary luxury of the court, huge expenses for the army and navy, gifts to the empress’s relatives, etc. placed a heavy burden on the country's economy.

The internal situation of the state in the last years of Anna Ioannovna’s reign was difficult. The grueling campaigns of 1733-1739, the cruel rule and abuses of the Empress's favorite Ernest Biron had a detrimental effect on national economy, cases of peasant uprising became more frequent.

Anna Ioannovna died on October 17, 1740, appointing the young Ivan Antonovich, the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna, as her successor, and Biron, Duke of Courland, as regent until he came of age.

JOHN VI ANTONOVICH (08/12/1740 – 07/04/1764)

Emperor from October 17, 1740 to November 25, 1741, son of the niece of Empress Anna Ioannovna, Princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg and Prince Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick-Luxembourg. He was elevated to the throne after the death of his great-aunt, Empress Anna Ioannovna.

By Anna Ioannovna's manifesto of October 5, 1740, he was declared heir to the throne. Shortly before her death, Anna Ioannovna signed a manifesto, which, until John came of age, appointed her favorite Duke Biron as regent under him.

After the death of Anna Ioannovna, her niece Anna Leopoldovna, on the night of November 8-9, 1740, carried out a palace coup and proclaimed herself the ruler of the state. Biron was sent into exile.

A year later, also on the night of November 24-25, 1741, Tsarevna Elizaveta Petrovna (daughter of Peter I), together with part of the officers and soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment loyal to her, arrested the ruler with her husband and children, including Emperor John VI, in the palace. For 3 years, the deposed emperor and his family were transported from fortress to fortress. In 1744, the entire family was transported to Kholmogory, but the deposed emperor was kept separately. Here John remained completely alone for about 12 years under the supervision of Major Miller. Fearing a conspiracy, in 1756 Elizabeth ordered John to be secretly transported to Shlisselburg. In the Shlisselburg fortress, John was kept completely alone. Only three security officers knew who he was.

In July 1764 (during the reign of Catherine II), second lieutenant of the Smolensk infantry regiment Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich, in order to carry out a coup, attempted to free the tsar's prisoner. During this attempt, Ivan Antonovich was killed. On September 15, 1764, Second Lieutenant Mirovich was beheaded.

ELIZAVETA PETROVNA (12/18/1709 – 12/25/1761)

Empress since November 25, 1741, daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. She ascended the throne, overthrowing the young Emperor John VI Antonovich. She was crowned on April 25, 1742.

Elizaveta Petrovna was intended to be the bride of Louis XV, King of France back in 1719, but the engagement did not take place. Then she was engaged to Prince Karl-August of Holstein, but he died on May 7, 1727. Soon after accession to the throne, she declared her nephew (the son of her sister Anna) Karl-Peter-Ulrich, Duke of Holstein, who took the name Peter (the future Peter III) as her heir. Fedorovich).

During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna in 1743, the war with the Swedes, which had lasted for many years, ended. A university was founded in Moscow on January 12, 1755. In 1756-1763 Russia took a successful part in the Seven Years' War, caused by the clash between aggressive Prussia and the interests of Austria, France and Russia. During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, not a single death penalty. Elizaveta Petrovna signed the decree abolishing the death penalty on May 7, 1744.

PETER III FYODOROVICH (02/10/1728 – 07/06/1762)

Emperor from December 25, 1761, before the adoption of Orthodoxy, bore the name Karl-Peter-Ulrich, the son of Duke Karl-Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Anna, daughter of Peter I.

Pyotr Fedorovich lost his mother at the age of 3 months, his father at the age of 11 years. In December 1741 he was invited by his aunt Elizaveta Petrovna to Russia, and on November 15, 1742 he was declared heir to the Russian throne. On August 21, 1745, he married Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna, the future Empress Catherine II.

Peter III, while still heir to the throne, repeatedly declared himself an enthusiastic admirer of the Prussian king Frederick II. Despite his accepted Orthodoxy, Pyotr Fedorovich remained a Lutheran in his soul and treated the Orthodox clergy with disdain, closed his home churches, and addressed the Synod with offensive decrees. In addition, he began to remake the Russian army in the Prussian way. With these actions he aroused the clergy, army and guard against himself.

In the last years of Elizabeth Petrovna's reign, Russia successfully participated in the Seven Years' War against Frederick II. The Prussian army was already on the eve of capitulation, but Peter III, immediately after ascending the throne, renounced participation in the Seven Years' War, as well as all Russian conquests in Prussia, and thereby saved the king. Frederick II promoted Pyotr Fedorovich to general of his army. Peter III accepted this rank, which caused general indignation among the nobility and the army.

All this contributed to the creation of opposition in the guard, headed by Catherine. She carried out a palace coup in St. Petersburg, taking advantage of the fact that Peter III was in Oranienbaum. Ekaterina Alekseevna, who had intelligence and a strong character, with the support of the guard, got her cowardly, inconsistent and mediocre husband to sign an abdication of the Russian throne. After which, on June 28, 1762, he was taken to Ropsha, where he was kept under arrest and where he was killed (strangled) on July 6, 1762 by Count Alexei Orlov and Prince Fyodor Baryatinsky.

His body, initially buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, 34 years later was reburied at the behest of Paul I in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

During the six months of the reign of Peter III, one of the few things useful for Russia was the destruction of the terrible secret chancellery in February 1762.

Peter III had two children from his marriage to Ekaterina Alekseevna: a son, later Emperor Paul I, and a daughter, Anna, who died in infancy.

EKATERINA II ALEKSEEVNA (04/21/1729 – 11/06/1796)

Empress from June 28, 1762. She ascended the throne, overthrowing her husband, Emperor Peter III Fedorovich. She was crowned on September 22, 1762.

Ekaterina Alekseevna (before accepting Orthodoxy, bore the name Sophia-Frederica-Augusta) was born in Stettin from the marriage of Christian August, Duke of Anhalt-Zerbst-Benburg and Johanna Elisabeth, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp. She was invited to Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna as a bride for the heir Peter Fedorovich in 1744. On August 21, 1745 she married him, on September 20, 1754 she gave birth to the heir Paul, and in December 1757 she gave birth to a daughter Anna, who died in in infancy.

Catherine was naturally gifted with a great mind, strong character and determination - the complete opposite of her husband, a man of weak character. The marriage was not concluded for love, and therefore the relationship between the spouses did not work out.

With the accession of Peter III to the throne, Catherine’s position became more complicated (Peter Fedorovich wanted to send her to a monastery), and she, taking advantage of her husband’s unpopularity among the developed nobility, relying on the guard, overthrew him from the throne. Having skillfully deceived the active participants in the conspiracy - Count Panin and Princess Dashkova, who wanted to transfer the throne to Paul and appoint Catherine as regent, she declared herself the ruling empress.

The main objects of Russian foreign policy were the steppe Black Sea region with Crimea and northern Caucasus- areas of Turkish domination and domination of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland), which included Western Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian lands. Catherine II, who showed great diplomatic skill, fought two wars with Turkey, marked by major victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Potemkin and Kutuzov and the establishment of Russia in the Black Sea.

The development of areas in the south of Russia was consolidated by an active resettlement policy. Intervention in the affairs of Poland ended with three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772, 1793, 1795), accompanied by the transfer of part of the Western Ukrainian lands, most of Belarus and Lithuania to Russia. Irakli II, the king of Georgia, recognized the protectorate of Russia. Count Valerian Zubov, appointed commander-in-chief in the campaign against Persia, conquered Derbent and Baku.

Russia owes Catherine the introduction of smallpox vaccination. On October 26, 1768, Catherine II, the first in the empire, vaccinated herself against smallpox, and a week later, her son.

During the reign of Catherine II, favoritism flourished. If Catherine's predecessors - Anna Ioannovna (there was one favorite - Biron) and Elizabeth (2 official favorites - Razumovsky and Shuvalov) favoritism was more of a whim, then Catherine had dozens of favorites and with her favoritism becomes something like government agency, and this cost the treasury very dearly.

The strengthening of serfdom and prolonged wars placed a heavy burden on the masses, and the growing peasant movement grew into a peasant war under the leadership of E.I. Pugacheva (1773-1775)

In 1775, the existence of the Zaporozhye Sich was terminated, and serfdom was approved in Ukraine. “Humane” principles did not prevent Catherine II from exiling A.N. to Siberia. Radishchev for the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.”

Catherine II died on November 6, 1796. Her body was buried on December 5 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

PAVEL I PETROVICH (09/20/1754 – 03/12/1801)

Emperor since November 6, 1796. Son of Emperor Peter III and Empress Catherine II. He ascended the throne after the death of his mother. Crowned April 5, 1797

His childhood was spent in unusual conditions. Palace coup, the forced abdication and subsequent murder of his father, Peter III, as well as the seizure of power by Catherine II, bypassing Paul's rights to the throne, left an indelible imprint on the already difficult character of the heir. Paul I lost interest in those around him as quickly as he became attached to him; he began to show early extreme pride, contempt for people and extreme irritability; he was very nervous, impressionable, suspicious and excessively hot-tempered.

On September 29, 1773, Pavel married Princess Wilhelmina Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, or Natalya Alekseevna in Orthodoxy. She died from childbirth in April 1776. On September 26, 1776, Paul married for the second time the Princess of Württemberg Sophia Dorothea Augusta Louise, who in Orthodoxy became Maria Feodorovna. From this marriage he had 4 sons, including the future emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I, and 6 daughters.

After ascending the throne on December 5, 1796, Paul I reburied the remains of his father in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, next to the body of his mother. On April 5, 1797, Paul's coronation took place. On the same day, the Decree on Succession to the Throne was promulgated, which established the order of succession to the throne - from father to eldest son.

Frightened by the great French Revolution and the ongoing peasant uprisings in Russia, Paul I pursued a policy of extreme reaction. The strictest censorship was introduced, private printing houses were closed (1797), the import of foreign books was prohibited (1800), and emergency police measures were introduced to persecute progressive social thought.

In his activities, Paul I relied on temporary favorites Arakcheev and Kutaisov.

Paul I took part in the coalition wars against France. However, the strife between the emperor and his allies, the hope of Paul I that the gains of the French Revolution would be nullified by Napoleon himself, led to a rapprochement with France.

Paul I's petty pickiness and unbalanced character caused discontent among the courtiers. It intensified due to changes in foreign policy, which disrupted existing trade ties with England.

The constant distrust and suspicion of Paul I reached a particularly strong degree by 1801. He even planned to imprison his sons Alexander and Constantine in the fortress. As a result of all these reasons, a conspiracy arose against the emperor. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Paul I fell victim to this conspiracy in the Mikhailovsky Palace.

ALEXANDER I PAVLOVICH (12/12/1777 – 11/19/1825)

Emperor since March 12, 1801. The eldest son of Emperor Paul I and his second wife Maria Feodorovna. Crowned September 15, 1801

Alexander I ascended the throne after the murder of his father as a result of a palace conspiracy, the existence of which he knew and agreed to the removal of Paul I from the throne.

The first half of the reign of Alexander I was marked by moderate liberal reforms: granting merchants, townspeople and state-owned villagers the right to receive uninhabited lands, the publication of a Decree on free cultivators, the establishment of ministries, the State Council, the opening of St. Petersburg, Kharkov and Kazan universities, the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, etc.

Alexander I repealed a number of laws introduced by his father: he declared a broad amnesty for exiles, freed prisoners, returned their positions and rights to the disgraced, restored the election of leaders of the nobility, freed priests from corporal punishment, and abolished the restrictions on civilian clothing introduced by Paul I.

In 1801, Alexander I concluded peace treaties with England and France. In 1805-1807 he participated in the 3rd and 4th coalitions against Napoleonic France. The defeat at Austerlitz (1805) and Friedland (1807), and England’s refusal to subsidize the military expenses of the coalition led to the signing of the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 with France, which, however, did not prevent a new Russian-French clash. Successfully completed wars with Turkey (1806-1812) and Sweden (1808-1809) strengthened international situation Russia. During the reign of Alexander I, Georgia (1801), Finland (1809), Bessarabia (1812) and Azerbaijan (1813) were annexed to Russia.

At the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812, under pressure public opinion, the king appointed M.I. as commander-in-chief of the army. Kutuzova. In 1813 – 1814 The emperor led an anti-French coalition of European powers. On March 31, 1814, he entered Paris at the head of the allied armies. Alexander I was one of the organizers and leaders of the Vienna Congress (1814-1815) and the Holy Alliance (1815), a constant participant in all its congresses.

In 1821, Alexander I became aware of the existence secret society“Union of Welfare”. The king did not react to this. He said: “It’s not for me to punish them.”

Alexander I died suddenly in Taganrog on November 19, 1825. His body was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on March 13, 1826. Alexander I was married to Princess Louise-Maria-August of Baden-Baden (in Orthodoxy Elizaveta Alekseevna), from whose marriage he had two daughters who died in infancy.

NICHOLAY I PAVLOVICH (06/25/1796 – 02/18/1855)

Emperor since December 14, 1825. Third son of Emperor Paul I and his second wife Maria Feodorovna. He was crowned in Moscow on August 22, 1826 and in Warsaw on May 12, 1829.

Nicholas I ascended the throne after the death of his elder brother Alexander I and in connection with the abdication of the throne by his second brother, the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Constantine. He brutally suppressed the uprising on December 14, 1825, and the first action of the new emperor was to deal with the rebels. Nicholas I executed 5 people, sent 120 people to penal servitude and exile, and punished soldiers and sailors with spitzrutens, sending them then to remote garrisons.

The reign of Nicholas I was the period of the highest flowering of the absolute monarchy.

In an effort to strengthen the existing political system and not trusting the bureaucracy, Nicholas I significantly expanded the functions of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery, which controlled all the main branches of government and replaced the highest state bodies. Highest value there was a “Third Department” of this office - the secret police department. During his reign, the “Code of Laws of the Russian Empire” was compiled - a code of all legislative acts existing by 1835.

The revolutionary organizations of the Petrashevites, the Cyril and Methodius Society, etc. were destroyed.

Russia was entering a new stage of economic development: manufacturing and commercial councils were created, industrial exhibitions were organized, and higher educational institutions, including technical ones, were opened.

In the field of foreign policy, the main one was the Eastern Question. Its essence was to ensure a favorable regime for Russia in Black Sea waters, which was important both for the security of the southern borders and for the economic development of the state. However, with the exception of the Unkar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833, this was resolved by military action, by dividing the Ottoman Empire. The consequence of this policy was the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

An important aspect of the policy of Nicholas I was a return to the principles of the Holy Alliance, proclaimed in 1833 after he entered into an alliance with the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia to fight the revolution in Europe. Implementing the principles of this Union, Nicholas I broke off diplomatic relations with France in 1848, launched an invasion of the Danube principalities, and suppressed the revolution of 1848-1849. in Hungary. He pursued a policy of vigorous expansion in Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

Nikolai Pavlovich married the daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William III, Princess Frederica-Louise-Charlotte-Wilhelmina, who adopted the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon converting to Orthodoxy. They had seven children, including the future Emperor Alexander II.

ALEXANDER II NIKOLAEVICH (04/17/1818-03/01/1881)

Emperor since February 18, 1855. The eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. He ascended the throne after the death of his father. Crowned August 26, 1856

While still a Tsarevich, Alexander Nikolaevich was the first from the House of Romanov to visit Siberia (1837), which resulted in a mitigation of the fate of the exiled Decembrists. In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II and during his travels, the Tsarevich repeatedly replaced the emperor. In 1848, during his stay at the Vienna, Berlin and other courts, he carried out various important diplomatic assignments.

Alexander II were carried out in 1860-1870. a number of important reforms: abolition of serfdom, zemstvo, judicial, city, military, etc. The most significant of these reforms was the abolition of serfdom (1861). But these reforms did not give all the results that were expected from them. An economic recession began, reaching its peak in 1880.

In the field of foreign policy, a significant place was occupied by the struggle for the abolition of the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 (after Russia’s defeat in Crimea). In 1877, Alexander II, seeking to strengthen Russian influence in the Balkans, began a fight with Turkey. Help for the Bulgarians in liberating themselves from the Turkish yoke also brought additional territorial gains by Russia - the border in Bessarabia was advanced to the confluence of the Prut with the Danube and to the Kiliya mouth of the latter. At the same time, Batum and Kars were occupied in Asia Minor.

Under Alexander II, the Caucasus was finally annexed to Russia. According to the Aigun Treaty with China, Russia withdrew Amur region(1858), and according to Peking - Ussuri (1860). In 1867, Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were sold to the United States. In the steppes of Central Asia in 1850-1860. There were constant military clashes.

In domestic politics, the decline of the revolutionary wave after the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863-1864. made it easier for the government to transition to a reactionary course.

With his shot in the Summer Garden on April 4, 1866, Dmitry Karakozov opened the account of the assassination attempts on Alexander II. Then there were several more attempts: by A. Berezovsky in 1867 in Paris; A. Solovyov in April 1879; by Narodnaya Volya in November 1879; S. Khalturin in February 1880 At the end of the 1870s. Repressions against revolutionaries intensified, but this did not save the emperor from martyrdom. March 1, 1881 Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown at his feet by I. Grinevitsky.

Alexander II married in 1841 the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse-Darmstadt, Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Sophia Maria (1824-1880), who in Orthodoxy took the name Maria Alexandrovna. There were 8 children from this marriage, including the future Emperor Alexander III.

After the death of his wife in 1880, Alexander II almost immediately entered into a morganatic marriage with Princess Catherine Dolgoruka, with whom he had three children during the Empress’s lifetime. After the consecration of the marriage, his wife received the title of His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya. Their son Georgy and daughters Olga and Ekaterina inherited their mother's surname.

ALEXANDER III ALEXANDROVICH (02/26/1845-10/20/1894)

Emperor since March 2, 1881 The second son of Emperor Alexander II and his wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna. He ascended the throne after the murder of his father Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya. Crowned May 15, 1883

Alexander III's elder brother, Nicholas, died in 1865, and only after his death Alexander Alexandrovich was declared crown prince.

In the first months of the reign of Alexander III, the policy of his cabinet was determined by the struggle of factions within the government camp (M.T. Loris-Melikov, A.A. Abaza, D.A. Milyutin - on the one hand, K.P. Pobedonostsev - on the other). On April 29, 1881, when the weakness of the revolutionary forces was revealed, Alexander III issued a manifesto on the establishment of autocracy, which meant a transition to a reactionary course in domestic politics. However, in the first half of the 1880s. under the influence of economic development and the current political situation, the government of Alexander III carried out a number of reforms (abolition of the poll tax, introduction of compulsory redemption, lowering of redemption payments). With the resignation of Minister of Internal Affairs N.I. Ignatiev (1882) and the appointment of Count D.A. Tolstoy to this post, a period of open reaction began. In the late 80s - early 90s. XIX century so-called counter-reforms were carried out (introduction of the institution of zemstvo chiefs, revision of zemstvo and city regulations, etc.). During the reign of Alexander III, administrative arbitrariness increased significantly. Since the 1880s There was a gradual deterioration in Russian-German relations and a rapprochement with France, ending with the conclusion of the French-Russian alliance (1891-1893).

Alexander III died relatively young (49 years old). He suffered from nephritis for many years. The disease was aggravated by bruises received during a train accident near Kharkov.

After the death in 1865 of his elder brother, heir to Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich received, along with the title of heir to Tsarevich, the hand of his bride, Princess Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmara (in Orthodoxy Maria Feodorovna), daughter of the Danish king Christian IX and his wife Queen Louise. Their wedding took place in 1866. Six children were born from this marriage, including Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich.

NICHOLAY II ALEXANDROVICH (03/06/1868 - ?)

Last Russian Emperor from October 21, 1894 to March 2, 1917, eldest son of Emperor Alexander III Alexandrovich. Crowned May 14, 1895

The beginning of the reign of Nicholas II coincided with the beginning of the rapid growth of capitalism in Russia. In order to preserve and strengthen the power of the nobility, whose interests he remained the spokesman for, the tsar pursued a policy of adaptation to the bourgeois development of the country, which was manifested in the desire to seek ways of rapprochement with the big bourgeoisie, in an attempt to create support in the wealthy peasantry (“Stolypin’s agrarian reform”) and the establishment State Duma(1906).

In January 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began, which soon ended in the defeat of Russia. The war cost our state 400 thousand people killed, wounded and captured and 2.5 billion rubles in gold.

Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the revolution of 1905-1907. sharply weakened Russia's influence on international arena. In 1914, Russia entered the First World War as part of the Entente.

Failures at the front, huge losses in people and equipment, devastation and disintegration in the rear, Rasputinism, ministerial leapfrog, etc. caused sharp discontent with the autocracy in all circles of Russian society. The number of strikers in Petrograd reached 200 thousand people. The situation in the country is out of control. On March 2 (15), 1917, at 23:30, Nicholas II signed the Manifesto on abdication and transfer of the throne to his brother Mikhail.

In June 1918, a meeting was held at which Trotsky proposed holding an open trial of the former Russian emperor. Lenin considered that in the chaos that reigned at that time, this step was clearly inappropriate. Therefore, Army Commander J. Berzin was ordered to take the imperial family under strict supervision. And the royal family remained alive.

This is confirmed by the fact that the heads of the diplomatic department Soviet Russia G. Chicherin, M. Litvinov and K. Radek during 1918-22. They repeatedly offered to extradite certain members of the royal family. At first they wanted to sign the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty in this way, then on September 10, 1918 (two months after the events in the Ipatiev House), the Soviet ambassador in Berlin, Joffe, officially contacted the German Foreign Ministry with a proposal to exchange the “former queen” for K. Liebknecht, etc. .

And if the revolutionary authorities really wanted to destroy any possibility of restoring the monarchy in Russia, they would present the corpses to the whole world. So, they say, make sure that there is no longer a king or an heir, and there is no need to break spears. However, there was nothing to show. Because a performance was staged in Yekaterinburg.

And the hot pursuit investigation into the execution of the royal family came to precisely this conclusion: “in the Ipatiev house an imitation of the execution of the royal family was carried out.” However, investigator Nametkin was immediately dismissed and killed a week later. The new investigator, Sergeev, came to exactly the same conclusion and was also removed. Subsequently, the third investigator, Sokolov, also died in Paris, who first gave the conclusion required of him, but then nevertheless tried to make public the true results of the investigation. In addition, as we know, very soon not a single person remained alive from those who took part in the “execution of the royal family.” The house was destroyed.

But if royal family were not shot until 1922, then there was no longer any need for their physical destruction. Moreover, the heir Alexei Nikolaevich was even given special care. He was taken to Tibet to be treated for hemophilia, as a result of which, by the way, it turned out that his illness existed only thanks to the suspicious confidence of his mother, who had a strong psychological impact on the boy. Otherwise, of course, he could not have lived for so long. So, we can clearly state that the son of Nicholas II, Tsarevich Alexei, not only was not executed in 1918, but also lived until 1965 under the special patronage of the Soviet government. Moreover, his son Nikolai Alekseevich, born in 1942, was able to become a rear admiral without joining the CPSU. And then, in 1996, in compliance with the full ceremony required in such cases, he was declared the Legitimate Sovereign of Russia. God protects Russia, which means he also protects his anointed one. And if you don’t yet believe in this, then that means you don’t believe in God.

On February 21, 1613, the most representative Zemsky Sobor, who elected 16-year-old king Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1613-1645). On July 11, he was crowned in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

Under the young king, his mother was in charge of state affairs Grand Eldress Martha and her relatives from the Saltykov boyars (1613-1619) , and after returning from Polish captivity Patriarch Filaret, the latter became the de facto ruler of Russia (1619-1633) , who bore the title Great Sovereign. In essence, dual power was established in the country: state documents were written in the name of the Sovereign Tsar and His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

The government was faced with a number of tasks: to improve the financial situation in the country, restore the economy, and strengthen state borders.

Financial problems were solved by further strengthening tax oppression: the “fifth money” (a tax amounting to a fifth of profits), direct taxes on the collection of grain reserves and money for the maintenance of the army were introduced (1614).

During the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, crafts began to rise and the first manufactories were formed. IN 1632 g. The first in the country begins its activities near Tula ironworks.

The situation in foreign policy was complex and ambiguous. In February 1617, an agreement was concluded between Russia and Sweden Peace of Stolbovo (1617)(in the village of Stolbovo). At the same time, the Polish prince Vladislav tried to confirm his claims to the Russian throne through military action. Polish troops met fierce resistance and in 1618 it was signed Truce of Deulin (1618) for 14.5 years. The Smolensk lands (except for Vyazma), including Smolensk, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversk lands with 29 cities, went to Poland.

In 1632-1634. there was a Russian-Polish war, which is also known as Smolensk War 1632-1634. , caused by Russia's desire to regain its ancestral lands. Soon it was signed Peace of Polyanovsky (1634), under the terms of which the pre-war border was preserved, and the King of Poland, Wladyslaw IV, officially renounced his claims to the Russian throne. To successfully conduct military operations during 1631-1634. Was held military reform and created " New build shelves", i.e. on the model of Western European armies. Reiter (1), dragoon (1) and soldier (8) regiments were created.

3. Prerequisites and features of the formation of Russian absolutism. The reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov (1645-1676).

During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, the collapse of feudalism began in Russia. Manufacture begins to develop (more than 20), market relations are established (in connection with the widespread development of small-scale production), and the merchant class begins to play an increasingly important role in the country's economy.

Under Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest, the prerequisites for the formation of an absolute monarchy in Russia began to take shape. The first sign of absolutism was Cathedral Code of 1649., which emphasized the sacredness of royal power and its inviolability. The chapter “The Court of Peasants” contains articles that finally formalized serfdom- the eternal hereditary dependence of the peasants was established, the “fixed summers” for searching for runaway peasants were abolished, and a high fine was established for harboring runaways. Peasants were deprived of the right to judicial representation in property disputes.

During the same period, the importance of zemstvo councils began to decline, the last of which was convened in 1653 g., and immediately after that it was created Order of secret affairs (1654-1676) for political investigation.

IN 1653 started Church reform of Patriarch Nikon according to the Byzantine model.

WITH 1654 to 1667. There was a war between Russia and Poland for the return of the ancestral Russian lands of Russia and for the annexation of Left Bank Ukraine. In 1667, Russia and Poland signed Peace of Andrusovo (1667), according to which Smolensk and Novgorod-Seversk lands, left-bank Ukraine and Kyiv (the latter until 1669) were returned to Russia.

The annexation of Ukraine required the unification of church rites, for which Nikon chose the Byzantine rites as a model. In addition, the government wanted to generally unite the churches not only of Russia and Ukraine, but also of the eastern autocephalous churches.

After the annexation of Ukraine, Alexey Mikhailovich, instead of the former “sovereign, tsar and grand prince of all Rus',” began to be called “by the grace of God, great sovereign, tsar and grand prince of all Great and Small and White Russia autocrat.”

Nikon's reforms gave rise to such a phenomenon as schism and movement of the Old Believers, which is on initial stage took exalted forms, namely baptism by fire, i.e. self-immolation. The movement especially intensified after the church council of 1666-1667, at which they were anathematized for their heresy. Popular disagreement with the policies of the official church was reflected in Solovetsky uprising 1668-1676.

The autocratic policy of the Moscow patriarch contradicted the interests of secular power, the growing elements of absolutism, and could not but cause royal discontent. At the council of 1666-1667. Nikon was deposed and taken under escort to the Ferapontov Monastery on Beloozero. Nikon died in 1681.

In Russia, the replacement of the estate-representative monarchy with an absolute monarchy began: zemstvo councils are no longer convened, the authority of the Boyar Duma has fallen, the church has been relegated to the background by secular power, government control over the life of the country is increasing, and the government itself is under the supervision of the repressive apparatus (Order of Secret Affairs ), the importance of the nobility increases (an equation of local ownership with patrimonial ownership occurs). At the same time, the formation of absolutism occurs under the sign of ever-increasing social oppression over the population - the peasantry and the townspeople.

The policy of the government of Alexei Mikhailovich caused a number of popular outrages, the most significant of which were Salt Riot (1648) And Copper Riot (1662).

The Salt Riot (another name for the Moscow Uprising) was initiated by the predatory policies of the government of B.I. Morozov after the tax reform: all indirect taxes were replaced by one direct one - a tax on salt, as a result of which the price for it increased several times.

The Copper Riot (or the Moscow Uprising of 1662) broke out due to the financial crisis: in 1654, the government introduced copper money at the rate of silver, as a result of the mass production of copper money, it depreciated, which led to increased speculation and the issuance of counterfeit coins (often the ruling apex).