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Czarist Russia

Tsardom of Russia
Русcкое Царство
Russkoye Tsarstvo
1547–1721
Flag Coat of arms
Territory of Russia in       1500,       1600 and       1700.
Capital Moscow
(1547–1712)
Alexandrov Kremlin
(1564–1581)
Saint Petersburg
(1712–1721)
Languages Russian
Religion Russian Orthodox
Government
Tsar (Emperor)
 •  1547–1584 Ivan IV (first)
 •  1682–1721 Peter I (last)
Legislature Zemsky Sobor
History
 •  Coronation of Ivan IV 16 January 1547
 •  Time of Troubles 1598–1613
 •  Russo-Polish War 1654–1667
 •  Great Northern War 1700–1721
 •  Treaty of Nystad 10 September 1721
 •  Empire proclaimed 22 October 1721
Population
 •  1500 est. 6,000,000 
 •  1600 est. 14,000,000 
Currency Russian ruble
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Grand Duchy of Moscow
Russian Empire
Today part of  Russia
 Belarus
 Kazakhstan
 Ukraine

The Tsardom of Russia (Русское царство,Russkoye tsarstvo or Российское царство, Rossisyskoye tsarstvo ), also known as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the name of the centralized Russian state from assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721.

From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 (about the size of the Netherlands) per year. The period includes the upheavals of the transition from the Rurik to the Romanov dynasties, drawn-out military conflict with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as the Russian conquest of Siberia, leading up to the 42-year reign of Peter the Great, who ascended in 1682 and transformed the Tsardom into a major European power. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire (Russian: Российская Империя, Rossiyskaya Imperiya) in 1721.

While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus' (Russian: Русь) and the Russian land (Russian: Русская земля), a new form of its name, Rusia or Russia, appeared and became common in the 15th century. In the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions "the sceptre of Russian lordship (Росийскаго господства)". In the following century Russia co-existed with the old name Rus' and appeared in an inscription on the western portal of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl (1515), on the icon case of the Theotokos of Vladimir (1514), in the work by Maximus the Greek, the Russian Chronograph written by Dosifei Toporkov (?–1543/44) in 1516–22 and in other sources.


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Wikipedia

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