Dinotsars! No, tsars. Tsars were rulers of Russia in the present day. Dinosaurs, I am sad to report to you, my dear friend, were wiped out a while ago. Quite a while ago. But yes, they were rulers. Without much ado, lets begin. This post was contributed by Atul Parida, a close friend of mine. Now, you probably can tell the layout is a bit different, as in shorter paragraphs, there are no breaks between lines, and, no sources.
The Tsarist Empire of Russia, as you can guess, was an autocratic dynasty of several kings (tsars or as we call them, czars) situated in present-day Russia. They ruled from the 14th century till the February Revolution of 1917. Now, as with all autocracies, they imposed certain limits and stumbles for the common people that resulted in their impoverishment but, unlike the French Autocracy, they also gave the people wonderful things that resulted in their basic well-being and more or less provided sufficient privileges to the people.
The first recognised Tsar was Tsar Ivan IV in 1547; ironically this was before the actual Russian Empire was founded in 1721 by Peter I. You may know Tsar Ivan IV as Ivan the Terrible, the person who massacred an entire district in Russia and treated the nobility very harshly. He built a small fortress in Moscow which later grew into the well-known seat of the Russian Government i.e. the Kremlin.
At this time, the Russian serfdom comprised of less than a third of present-day Russia, and was basically half of Europe until the Ural Mountains. It was known as Moscovia at the time; evidently, the capital of the empire was Moscow, which was then a small fort surrounded by a marsh.
After Ivan's death, there was a large power struggle which was called The Time of Troubles by the townsfolk. It was marked by repeated Polish intervention, and ended with the coronation of Mikhail Romanov in 1613, beginning the 300 year reign of the Romanov family.
During the rule of Tsar Mikhail, there were many wars between Poland and Russia, and after his death led to a large expansion in territory and the acquisition of Ukraine. The following rulers adopted a policy of expansion, leading to the conquest of Siberia and parts of the Chinese Empire.
After the conquest of Siberia, Russia became a massive empire, stretching from the Gulf of Finland to the Bering Strait. The consolidation of the Empire was essential to its survival and after a long power struggle between various members of the Romanov family, Peter I emerged victorious and in 1672, he was coronated.
Peter I introduced various reforms based on European society. At the time, the Russian Empire was more of a Commonwealth of small tribes and serfs. After touring Western Europe, Peter reformed the Russians into a mainstream European society, and consolidated the Russian Commonwealth into the great Russian Empire, which lasted until the Bolsheviks took over.
Now, as with all empires, there was a period of uncertainty and an event catalysed the downfall of the Empire. For example, for France, it was the reign of Louis XVI and for the Romans, it was Caesar's attempted monarchy. For the Russian Empire, it was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. Before discussing the downfall, let's see what exactly caused this event.
Tsar Alexander II wasn't a bad guy. He was a reformist and believed in the progression of Russian society. He was responsible for the sale of Alaska to the United States of America and was about to enact a Democratic Constitution before he was assassinated. Unfortunately, not all of his reforms were embraced by the people and later, a number of extremist groups emerged whose primary goal was to kill the Tsar, and succeed in arresting control of the Empire.
On 13th March 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by a group of extremists who killed him using a number of bombs while he was travelling in a carriage. The Tsar survived the first bomb which landed under his carriage but was killed by the second bomb, which landed at his feet and mutilated his legs. He was taken to the Winter Palace, where he died in the presence of his son Alexander and his grandson Nicholas, the latter of whom became Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.
Seeing the demise of the Tsar, the later Tsars followed a policy of complete autocracy and introduced a spy network that was all-permeating throughout all layers of Russian society, as to prevent the outbreak of separatist groups and militants. This was introduced by the next Tsar in line, Alexander III, and under the guidance of the Soviet Union, evolved into the KGB. The last Tsars were extremely unpopular with the people and after the death of Alexander III, the Russians had to face the epitome of failure; Tsar Nicholas II.
Tsar Nicholas II was undoubtedly the worst Tsar of Russia since Ivan the Terrible. Among his failures, the ones that were the most important were losing the First World War and also, to add fuel to the fire, the Russo-Nipponese War or basically the war between Russia and Japan. The public sentiment for the Tsars decreased so much that in February 1917, during the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Parliament aka the Grand Duma requested the Tsar to abdicate, thus ending more than three centuries of Tsarist rule and the end of the Romanov dynasty.
This period was followed by the rule of the Bolsheviks and later, the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics aka the U.S.S.R.
The Tsars were great, but their reign deteriorated over time due to the lack of progress in Russian society, causing the Tsars to be too futuristic for their own good, and resulting in their absolute downfall. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is called as a modern-day Tsar due to his massive popularity with the Russian people and his long term control of the Russian Republic.
Yah, I lied, two main sources: www.hermitagemuseum.org
as the Russian Hermitage website was minor.
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