A History of The Tsars Russia

The Tsars ruled the country of Russia for hundreds of years, and thansformed the lowly, half-barbaric State of Rus into the great country it is today.

The History of the Tsar's Russia is very interesting. At first the city of Kiev,(today in Ukraine), was founded by the Vikings around 800, and it was called the State of Rus. The Byzantine Empire converted the Slavs to eastern orthodox, and were heavily influenced by them. Eventually Rus broke away from the Vikings and became an independent state. Later, in the 1200's, the Mongolian Golden Horde swept through Russia, burning Moscow and damaging Kiev. The Russians were not a powerful state back then, so it ad to pay tribute to the Mongols to leave them alone.

In the 1400's, Ivan the III married the last niece of the Byzantine Emperor, before Constantinople fell to the Turkish Sultanate Mohammad the II. Ivan III, called Moscow The Third Rome". Ivan the III built the Kremlin, as it stands today. His son, Ivan the IV, built St.Basil's Cathedral at the Kremlin for its victories against the Mongols at Kazan and Astrakhan.

In The 1600's, Peter The Great, transformed the poor , small isolated Russia into the nation we know today. He is famous for founding St. Petersburg, the capitol of the Tsars, so he could trade with Western Europe. He also gained The Baltic provinces of Sweden in The Great Northern War, to secure his control on the Baltic. At this time, the Russian Navy was founded.

In the 1700's, Catherine The Great completed Russia's modernization. She won the Crimea, and Georgia, both controlled by Turkey,(Russia's Enemy), and completed Russia's Siberian expansion. She is famous for murdering her husband, Tsar Peter III, in a, "Hunting Accident".

In the 1800's, Tsar Alexander II won the Napoleonic Wars in Russia, pushing them back from Moscow, all the way back to Paris. Alexander the II is also famous for freeing the old system of serfdom.

In the Mid-1800's, Tsar Alexander III is famous for starting construction of the great Trans-Siberian Railroad with lots of loans from France, (Russia's Ally). The reason France invested in Russia was they feared that the German state of Prussia might thy to conquer them, and they knew they would need Russia's help and his subjects were spread out far away.

The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, son of Alexander III, won World War I with the Germans, losing Poland from a Soviet Treaty while he was still alive. By the end of World War I, he had lost his power to the Soviet Revolution before he was shot in Ekaterinburg with his family.