The Monarchs of Russia ~ (1547-1917)

From The Romanian Monarchist

The vast territory known today as Russia covers an area that has been known historically by various names, including Rus', Kievan Rus',the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Czardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, and the sovereigns of these many nations and throughout their histories have used likewise as wide a range of titles in their positions as chief magistrates of a country. Some of the earliest titles include Kniaz and Velikiy Kniaz, which mean "Prince" and "Great Prince" respectively but are often rendered as "Duke" and "Grand Duke" in Western literature; then the title of Czar, meaning "Caesar", which was disputed to be the equal of either a king or emperor; finally culminating in the title of Emperor. According to Article 59 of the 1906 Russian Constitution, the Russian Czar held several dozen titles, each one representing a region which the monarch governed. The Patriarchs of Moscow, who were the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, have also acted as the leaders of Russia from time to time, usually in periods of political upheaval, as during the Polish occupation and interregnum of 1610–13.

-Vasili's son Ivan the Terrible formalised the situation by assuming the title Tsar of All Rus' in 1547, when the state of Russia (apart from its constituent principalities) came into formal being. Following the death of Feodor I, the son of Ivan the Terrible and the last of the Rurik dynasty, Russia fell into a succession crisis known as the Time of Troubles. As Feodor left no male heirs, the Russian Zemsky Sobor (feudal parliament) elected his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, to be Tsar. Devastated by famine, the rule under Boris descended into anarchy. A series of impostors, known as the False Dmitriys, each claimed to be Feodor's long deceased younger brother; however, only the first impostor ever legitimately held the title of Tsar. A distant Rurikid cousin, Vasili Shuyskiy, also took power for a time. During this period, foreign powers deeply involved themselves in Russian politics, under the leadership of the Vasa monarchs of Sweden and Poland-Lithuania, including Sigismund III Vasa and his son Władysław IV Vasa. As a child, Władysław was even chosen as Tsar by the Seven Boyars, though he was prevented by his father from formally taking the throne. The Time of Troubles is considered to have ended with the election of Michael Romanov to the throne, who established the Romanov dynasty that would rule Russia until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Empire of Russia was declared by Peter the Great in 1721. Officially, Russia would be ruled by the Romanov dynasty until the Russian Revolution of 1917. However, direct male descendants of Michael Romanov came to an end in 1730 with the death of Peter II of Russia, grandson of Peter the Great. The throne passed to Anna, a niece of Peter the Great, and after the brief rule of her niece's infant son Ivan VI, the throne was seized by Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great. Elizabeth would be the last of the direct Romanovs to rule Russia. Elizabeth declared her nephew, Peter, to be her heir. Peter (who would rule as Peter III) spoke little Russian, having been a German prince of the House of Holstein-Gottorp before arriving in Russia to assume the Imperial title. He and his German wife Sophia, changed their name to Romanov upon inheriting the throne. Peter was ill-liked, and he was assassinated within six months of assuming the throne, in a coup orchestrated by his wife, who became Empress in her own right and ruled as Catherine the Great (both Peter and Catherine were descended from the House of Rurik). Following the confused successions of the descendants of Peter the Great, Catherine's son, Paul I, established clear succession laws which governed the rules of primogeniture over the Imperial throne until the fall of the Empire in 1917.