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 Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
History The Russian state was officially named the Russian Empire (Russian: Российская Империя - transliterated "Rossyiskaya Imperia") from 1721 to 1917.
The capital city of the Russian Empire was Saint-Petersburg (after 1914 renamed Petrograd). At the end of the 19th century the size of the Empire was about 22,400,000 square kilometers (almost 1/6 of the Earth's landmass); its only rival in size was the British Empire at the time. According to the 1897 census its population was about 128,200,000 people, however, a majority of them (93.4 million) lived in European Russia. More than a 100 different ethnic groups lived in the Russian Empire (ethnic Russians were about 45% of the population). In addition to today's Russia prior to 1917 Russian Empire included territories of Finland (Grand Duchy of Finland), Estonia and Latvia (Baltic provinces), most of Lithuania, Belarus, most of Ukraine (Dnieper Ukraine and Crimea), a significant part of Poland (Kingdom of Poland), Moldova (Bessarabia), Caucasus, and most of Central Asia (Russian Turkestan).
In 1914 the Russian Empire consisted of 81 provinces (guberniyas) and 20 regions (oblasts). Vassals and protectorates of the Russian Empire included the Emirate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Khiva and, after 1914, Tuva (Uriankhai).
The Russian Empire was a hereditary monarchy headed by an autocratic Emperor (Czar) from the Romanov dynasty. Orthodox Christianity was the official faith of the Empire and was controlled by the monarch through the Holy Synod. Subjects of the Russian Empire were segregated into sosloviyes, or social estates (classes) such as "dvoryanstvo" (nobility), clergy, merchants, cossacks and peasants. Native people of Siberia and Central Asia were officially registered as a category called "inorodtsy" (non-Russians, literally: "people of alien kind").
In addition to Russia proper, the empire consisted of the constitutional monarchies of the Kingdom of Poland (1815-1831) and the Grand Duchy of Finland (1809-1917)
The coat of arms of the Russian Empire was a two-headed eagle; the national anthem - God Save the Tsar (Bozhe, Tsarya khrani); the official language - Russian.
After the overthrow of monarchy during the February Revolution of 1917 Russia was declared to be a republic by the Provisional Government.
This period, together with overlaps with the preceding and subsequent periods, is covered in the following articles.
- Russian history, 1682-1796
- Russian history, 1796-1855
- Russian history, 1855-1892
- Russian history, 1892-1920
Rulers
Peter the Great changed his title from Czar to Emperor in 1721 and his successors kept it, but tsar/tsaritsa were still in regular popular use up to the fall of the Russian Empire.
- Peter I (the Great), (1682-1725)
- Catherine I, (1725-1727)
- Peter II, (1727-1730)
- Anna, (1730-1740)
- Ivan VI, (1740-1741)
- Elizabeth, (1741-1762)
- Peter III, (1762)
- Catherine II (the Great), (1762-1796)
- Paul I, (1796-1801)
- Alexander I, (1801-1825)
- Nicholas I, (1825-1855)
- Alexander II, (1855-1881)
- Alexander III, (1881-1894)
- Nicholas II, (1894-1917)
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