The most powerful state to eventually arise after the destruction of Kievan Rus' was the Grand Duchy of

Moscow, initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal.[53] While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and
with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century,
gradually becoming the leading force in the process of the Rus' lands' reunification and expansion of
Russia.[54] Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the
easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.[55]

Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow and helped by the Russian Orthodox Church, the united army
of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in
1380.[40] Moscow gradually absorbed its parent Vladimir-Suzdal, and then surrounding principalities,
including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.[53]

Ivan III ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of
northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title title "Grand
Duke of all Rus'". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of
the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor
Constantine XI, and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-
arms.[53]

Tsardom of Russia

Main article: Tsardom of Russia

See also: Moscow, third Rome

Tsar Ivan the Terrible, in an evocation by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897.

In development of the Third Rome ideas, the grand duke Ivan IV (the "Terrible") was officially crowned
the first tsar of Russia in 1547. The tsar promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established
the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor), revamped the military, curbed the
influence of the clergy, and reorganised local government.[53] During his long reign, Ivan nearly doubled
the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan along the
Volga,[56] and the Khanate of Sibir in southwestern Siberia. Ultimately, by the end of the 16th century,
Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains.[57] However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and
unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania (later the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), the Kingdom of Sweden, and Denmark–
Norway for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade.[58] In 1572, an invading army of Crimean Tatars
were thoroughly defeated in the crucial Battle of Molodi.[59]
The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik dynasty in 1598, and in combination with
the disastrous famine of 1601–1603, led to a civil war, the rule of pretenders, and foreign intervention
during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century.[60] The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, taking
advantage, occupied parts of Russia, extending into the capital Moscow.[61] In 1612, the Poles were
forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps, led by merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry
Pozharsky.[62] The Romanov dynasty acceded to the throne in 1613 by the decision of Zemsky Sobor,
and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.[63]

Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks.[64]
In 1654, the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the
Russian tsar, Alexis; whose acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War. Ultimately, Ukraine
was split along the Dnieper, leaving the eastern part, (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian
rule.[65] In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of vast Siberia continued, hunting
for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes,
and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi
Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.[64] In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov
became the first European to navigate through the Bering Strait.[66]

Imperial Russia

Main article: Russian Empire

Russian expansion and territorial evolution between the 14th and 20th centuries.

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one the
European great powers. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War
(1700−1721), securing Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. In 1703, on the Baltic Sea, Peter founded
Saint Petersburg as Russia's new capital. Throughout his rule, sweeping reforms were made, which
brought significant Western European cultural influences to Russia.[67] The reign of Peter I's daughter
Elizabeth in 1741–1762 saw Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). During the
conflict, Russian troops overran East Prussia, reaching Berlin.[68] However, upon Elizabeth's death, all
these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia.[69]

Catherine II ("the Great"), who ruled in 1762–1796, presided over the Russian Age of Enlightenment. She
extended Russian political control over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and annexed most of its
territories into Russia, making it the most populous country in Europe.[70] In the south, after the
successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to
the Black Sea, by dissolving the Crimean Khanate, and annexing Crimea.[71] As a result of victories over
Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars, by the first half of the 19th century, Russia also made
significant territorial gains in the Caucasus.[72] Catherine's successor, her son Paul, was unstable and
focused predominantly on domestic issues.[73] Following his short reign, Catherine's strategy was
continued with Alexander I's (1801–1825) wresting of Finland from the weakened Sweden in 1809,[74]
and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812.[75] In North America, the Russians became the first
Europeans to reach and colonise Alaska.[76] In 1803–1806, the first Russian circumnavigation was
made.[77] In 1820, a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.[78]

During the Napoleonic Wars, Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against
France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but
eventually failed miserably as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian
winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which the pan-European Grande Armée faced utter
destruction. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, the Imperial Russian Army
ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ultimately entering
Paris.[79] Alexander I controlled Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna, which defined the map of
post-Napoleonic Europe.[80]

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow by Albrecht Adam (1851).

The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and
attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825.[81] At the end of
the conservative reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in
Europe, was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War.[82] Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881)
enacted significant changes throughout the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861.[83]
These reforms spurred industrialisation, and modernised the Imperial Russian Army, which liberated
much of the Balkans from Ottoman rule in the aftermath of the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War.[84]
During most of the 19th and early 20th century, Russia and Britain colluded over Afghanistan and its
neighboring territories in Central and South Asia; the rivalry between the two major European empires
came to be known as the Great Game.[85]

The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was
assassinated in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists.[86] The reign of his son Alexander III (1881–1894) was
less liberal but more peaceful.[87] The last Russian emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), was unable to
prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, triggered by the humiliating Russo-Japanese War
and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday.[88][89] The uprising was put down, but the
government was forced to concede major reforms (Russian Constitution of 1906), including granting the
freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalisation of political parties, and the creation of an elected
legislative body, the State Duma.[90]