(CONDENSED FROM RAMBAUD’S HISTORY OF RUSSIA AND OTHER SOURCES.)

Ivan Vassilievitch, The Great, Grand Prince of Moscow (1462-1505). Novgorod, Tver, Rostov and Iavoslavl annexed to Muscovy. Permia conquered. Moscow freed from the suzerainty of the Tartar Khan of the Great Horde, 1478. Recommencement of Russia as a free State.

Vassili Ivanovitch, Grand Prince of Moscow (I505-1533). Smolensk taken, 1514. Tartar invasion, 1521.

Ivan Vassilievitch (Groznie), The Terrible (1533-1584). Assumed the title of Tsar of Muscovy, 1547. Married first Anastasia Romanovna Romanova. Conquest of the Tartar Khanates of Kazan 1552 and Astrakhan 1554. War with the Livonian Order, Poland, the Tartars and Sweden. Poland and Lithuania united, 1569. Polotsk and Livonia lost to Russia. Novgorod reduced and the inhabitants massacred, 1570. Treaties with Elizabeth, Queen of England. Foreigners enter Russian Military service. Siberia conquered, 1558-84.

Feodor (I.) Ivanovitch (1584-1598). Rise of Boris Feodorovitch Godounoff, brother of the Tsaritsa Irina. The Peasant attached to the glebe and made a Serf. Treaties with Elizabeth. Murder of the Tsar’s half-brother, Dmitri. End of the Dynasty of Rurik.

Boria Feodorovitch Godounoff (1598-1605). Elected Tsar on his brother-in-law’s death. Foreigners favoured. Appearance of the ‘False Dmitri.’

The ‘False Dmitri.’ Claiming to be the murdered Dmitri Ivanovitch, son of ‘The Terrible’Tsar, entered Russia with Polish support. The Godounoff family murdered or cloistered. He was married in Moscow to the Polish Maryna Mniszek, who was crowned with him. Murder of the Tsar and massacre of the Poles in Moscow, 1606.

Vassili Ivanovitch Shuiski (1606). Time of the Troubles. Elected Tsar. War with the Poles and the ‘Second False Dmitri,’ a Cossack brigand. Abdication of the Tsar, who enters a monastery.

Vladislav, son of Sigismond, King of Poland, recognised as Tsar. Invasion of Russia by the Poles, occupation of Moscow. Seizure of the Baltic by Sweden. Rising of the Russians under Minine and Pojarski, 1612. Retirement of the Poles. Election, in 1613, of Mikhael Feodorovitch Romanoff son of the Patriarch Philarete, who was associated with him in power.

Michael Feodorovitch Romanoff (1613-1645). First Tsar of the Romanoff Dynasty. Polish war ended. The ‘Second False Dmitri’ killed. Ambassadors dispatched to Western Europe. Novgorod restored to Russia by the Swedes through the mediation of England.

Aleksei Michaelovitch (1645-1676). Conquest of Smolensk and Ukraine from the Poles. Foreign soldiers enlisted, many Scots. Growing desire for Westernisation owing to the second marriage of the Tsar with Nathalia Kirillovna Narishkina. Embassy of Doktouroff to Charles I of England. The English merchants confined to Archangel on the execution of Charles I.

Feodor (II.) Aleksievitch (1676-1682). War with the Tartars.

Ivan Aleksievitch (1682-1696) and Peter (I.) Aleksievitch (1682-1725), The Great. Two brothers made equal Tsars under the regency of their sister, Sophia Aleksievna, which lasted until 1689, when Peter forced the Regent to take the veil, and assumed the complete power though allowing his brother the title of Tsar. Expeditions against Azof, 1695-1696. First journey to the West, 1697. Revolt and total destruction of the Streltsi. War with Sweden, ending in the battle of Poltava, 1709. Ingria taken by Russia in 1702. St. Petersburg founded, 1703, as a ‘Window into Europe.’ War with Turkey and Treaty of the Pruth, 1711. The Tsar visited Paris. Peace of Nystad, 1721, which gave Livonia, Esthonia, Carelia and part of Finland to Russia. The Tsar declared Autocrat. Trial and death of the Tsarevitch Aleksei Petrovitch, 1718. The Tsar declared Emperor, 1721. Adoubtful will.

Catherine (I.) (1725-1727). Widow of Peter I. Power of Menschikoff Peter I.’s Westernisation continued.

Peter (II.) Aleksievitch (1727-1730). Grandson of Peter I. Fall of Menschikoff. Rise of the Dolgoroukis. Return of the Court to Moscow. The Tsar buried there.

Anna Ivanovna (173O-1740). Niece of Peter I. Elected under a constitution. Constitution abrogated. Fall of the Dolgoroukis. Rise of Biron, Duke of Courland. Return of the Court to St. Petersburg. War of the Polish succession and against the Turks, 1735-39.

Ivan Antonovitch (1740-1741). Grandnephew of Anna. Under the regency of his mother Anna Leopoldovna. War with Sweden. Deposed and imprisoned until his death.

Elizabeth (1741-1761). Daughter of Peter I. seized the throne. War with Sweden. Acquisition of South Finland by Russia. War against Frederick II. of Prussia.

Peter (III.) Feodorovitch (1761-1762). Nephew of Elizabeth. Reversal of policy. Prussian influence. Dethroned and murdered.

Catherine (II.) (1762-1796). Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst ascended her husband’s throne and governed well through her favourites. Turkish war, 1767-74. The battle of Tchesme, 1770. First partition of Poland, 1772. Conquest of the Crimea, 1783. Second Turkish war, 1787-1792. War with Sweden, 1788-1790. Second partition of Poland. Third partition, which gave most of Poland to Russia. Persian war.

Paul (I.) (1796-1801). Son of the last. Campaigns of the Ionian Islands, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Naples. Great waste of Russian power. Alliance with Napoleon, and a great scheme against the British in India. The Emperor murdered by a Court Camarilla.