Civilization · 1721 – 1917
Russian Empire
The Romanov empire from Peter the Great to Nicholas II.
Capital: St. Petersburg, Moscow · Eastern Europe & Eurasian Steppe
Overview
Proclaimed by Peter I in 1721, the Russian Empire absorbed Siberia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and much of Poland to become the world's largest contiguous empire before dissolving in the 1917 Revolution.
Timeline
- 1721Peter the Great proclaims empire
- 1762 – 1796Catherine the Great expands south and west
- 1812Napoleonic invasion repulsed
- 1861Emancipation of the serfs
- 1917February and October Revolutions
Rulers
Westernized Russia
Enlightenment monarch and expander
Emancipator tsar
Last emperor
Wars & conflicts
- Great Northern War
- Napoleonic Wars
- Crimean War
- Russo-Japanese War
- World War I
Architecture
St. Petersburg baroque, Peterhof, Winter Palace, Trans-Siberian stations.
Religion
Russian Orthodoxy as state church.
Economy
Grain, timber, oil (Baku), industrialization from the 1890s.
Technology
Trans-Siberian Railway, early rocketry (Tsiolkovsky), Mendeleev's periodic table.
Art
Golden Age of Russian literature (Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky), Ballets Russes.
Influence
Set the stage for the Soviet Union and modern Russia.
Decline
WWI catastrophe and Bolshevik Revolution ended the Romanovs.
Key sites
- Winter Palace
- Kremlin
- Peterhof
- Tsarskoye Selo