The Russian Empire existed from 1721 to 1917. It occupied a huge territory, almost 36 million square kilometers, from of Eastern Europe and up to Asia (inclusive). The empire had an autocratic type of government and its capital in the city of St. Petersburg. The empire's population was over 170 million people and included over a hundred different ethnic groups. The largest of them are Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The Russian Empire began during the reign of Peter the Great (1694-1725) after Russia won the Great Northern War (1700-1721). In this war, Russia fought against the Swedish and Polish empires.
Most of the population of Russia at that time consisted of serfs. Russian rulers tried to reform the system by abandoning slavery, following the example of Western states. This led to the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The abolition occurred during the reign of Alexander II (1855-1881). The liberation of the peasants did not lead to an improvement in their lives. Disagreements and intrigues in the ruling circles grew and as a result, this led to the fact that Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne on March 15, 1917, during.
Absolute domination over its neighbors in Europe and Asia
The Russian offensive into East Prussia and Austria-Hungary was intended to distract German troops from the western front. In the course of implementing this plan, the Russian Empire suffered catastrophic losses and a number of defeats in 1914-1915. The incompetence of the military leadership affected and serious problems inside the country. The losses incurred during the war caused widespread unrest, especially among the proletariat, peasantry and soldiers.
This led to mass protests in 1916. The split in the government grew, and the opposition Progressive Bloc was formed. Regardless of all the government's attempts to maintain order and the monarchical system, demonstrators in the capital called for the abolition of autocracy. was forced to abdicate on March 15, thereby ending the existence of the Russian Empire. Seven months later, the Bolshevik Revolution began and the Soviet Union emerged.
The Russian Empire began its existence in 1721, during the reign of.
Russia became an Empire after completion, the results of which assigned Russia new lands, access to the Baltic Sea, various economic benefits, and other privileges. The capital of the Russian Empire became the city of St. Petersburg, the creation of Petrovo.
In the period from 1728 to 1730, Moscow was again the capital of Russia. From 1730 to 1917, the main city was again St. Petersburg. Russian Empire was big state, whose lands were vast.
In world history, it was the third state in terms of area that has ever existed (the Mongolian and British Empires hold the palm in this category).
The Empire was ruled by the EMPEROR, a monarch whose power was unlimited by anything except Christian tenets. In 1905, after the first revolution, the State Duma appeared, which limited the power of the monarch.
On the eve of 1917, Russian Agriculture was at the peak of its development. Land reform had a largely beneficial effect. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the First World War, the grain harvest in Russia doubled.
Russia harvested one-third more grain than Canada, the United States and Argentina combined. For example, the harvest of rye from the fields of the Russian Empire in 1894 yielded a harvest of 2 billion poods of grain, and in the last pre-war year (1913) - 4 billion.
During the reign of Nicholas II, it provided all of Europe with agricultural products.Between 1894 and 1911, cotton production in Russia increased by 388%.
During the period 1890-1913, industry quadrupled (!!!) its productivity. Income received by the Russian Empire from industrial enterprises, equaled the treasury's income from such an industry as agriculture.
Goods produced at Russian enterprises covered 4/5 of the domestic market demand for industrial products. Four years before, the number of established joint stock companies in Russia increased by 132%.
Capital invested in joint stock companies increased fourfold.
The main principle of budget planning was the absence of deficits. The ministers also did not forget about the need to accumulate gold reserves. Government revenues in last years life
The Russian Empire began its existence in 1721, during the reign of.
Russia became an Empire after completion, the results of which assigned Russia new lands, access to the Baltic Sea, various economic benefits, and other privileges. The capital of the Russian Empire became the city of St. Petersburg, the creation of Petrovo.
In the period from 1728 to 1730, Moscow was again the capital of Russia. From 1730 to 1917, the main city was again St. Petersburg. The Russian Empire was a large state whose lands were vast.
In world history, it was the third state in terms of area that has ever existed (the Mongolian and British Empires hold the palm in this category).
The Empire was ruled by the EMPEROR, a monarch whose power was unlimited by anything except Christian tenets. In 1905, after the first revolution, the State Duma appeared, which limited the power of the monarch.
On the eve of 1917, Russian agriculture was at the peak of its development. Land reform had a largely beneficial effect. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the First World War, the grain harvest in Russia doubled.
Russia harvested one-third more grain than Canada, the United States and Argentina combined. For example, the harvest of rye from the fields of the Russian Empire in 1894 yielded a harvest of 2 billion poods of grain, and in the last pre-war year (1913) - 4 billion.
During the reign of Nicholas II, it provided all of Europe with agricultural products.Between 1894 and 1911, cotton production in Russia increased by 388%.
During the period 1890-1913, industry quadrupled (!!!) its productivity. The income received by the Russian Empire from industrial enterprises was equal to the treasury's income from such an industry as agriculture.
Goods produced at Russian enterprises covered 4/5 of the domestic market demand for industrial products. Four years before, the number of established joint stock companies in Russia increased by 132%.
Capital invested in joint stock companies has quadrupled.
The main principle of budget planning was the absence of deficits. The ministers also did not forget about the need to accumulate gold reserves. Government revenues in the last years of life
As a result of the Northern War of 1700-1721, the powerful Swedish army was defeated and the Russian lands captured by Sweden at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries were returned. The city of St. Petersburg is built at the mouth of the Neva, where the capital of Russia is moved in 1712. The Moscow state became the Russian Empire in 1721, headed by the All-Russian Emperor.
Of course, Russia took a long time to create an empire, and not only the victory in the Northern War contributed to this.
Long haul
At the beginning of the 13th century, Rus' consisted of about 15 principalities. However, the natural course of centralization was thwarted Mongol invasion(1237-1240). The further unification of Russian lands took place in difficult foreign policy conditions and was dictated primarily by political prerequisites.
In the 14th century most of Russian lands were united around Vilna - the capital of the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. During the XIII-XV centuries, the principalities of Goroden, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Turovo-Pinsk, Kiev, as well as most of the Chernigov region, Volyn, Podolia, Smolensk region and a number of other Russian lands came into the possession of the great Lithuanian princes from the Gediminovich family. Thus, the individual rule of the Rurikovichs and the clan unity of Rus' became a thing of the past. The annexation of lands took place both military and peacefully.
The end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries became a kind of boundary, after which the lands annexed to Russia formed a single whole with it. The process of adding the rest of the inheritance Ancient Rus' lasted for another two centuries, and by this time its own ethnic processes had gained strength.
In 1654, Left Bank Ukraine joined Russia. The lands of Right Bank Ukraine (without Galicia) and Belarus became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1793.
“The Russian kingdom (both conceptually, ideologically, and institutionally) had two sources: the “kingdom” (Khanate) of the Golden Horde and the Byzantine Orthodox kingdom (empire).”
One of the first to formulate new idea the royal power of the Moscow princes was Metropolitan Zosima. In the essay “Exposition of Paschal,” submitted to the Moscow Council in 1492, he emphasized that Moscow became the new Constantinople thanks to Rus'’s loyalty to God. God Himself appointed Ivan III - “the new Tsar Constantine to the new city of Constantine - Moscow and the entire Russian land and many other lands of the sovereign.” Thus, Ivan IV was the first Tsar crowned king. This happened on January 16, 1547.
Under Ivan IV, Russia managed to significantly expand its possessions. As a result of the campaign against Kazan and its capture in 1552, it gained the middle Volga region, and in 1556, with the capture of Astrakhan, the lower Volga region and access to the Caspian Sea, which opened up new trade opportunities with Persia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. At the same time, the ring of hostile Tatar khanates that constrained Rus' was broken, and the road to Siberia was opened.
V. Surikov "Conquest of Siberia by Ermak"
The era of Ivan the Terrible also marked the beginning of the conquest of Siberia. A small detachment of Cossacks Ermak Timofeevich, hired by the Ural industrialists Stroganovs to protect against the attacks of the Siberian Tatars, defeated the army of the Siberian Khan Kuchum and took his capital Kashlyk. Despite the fact that due to the attacks of the Tatars, few of the Cossacks managed to return alive, the collapsed Siberian Khanate was never restored. A few years later, the royal archers of the governor Voeikov crushed the last resistance. The gradual development of Siberia by Russians began. Over the next decades, forts and trading settlements began to emerge: Tobolsk, Verkhoturye, Mangazeya, Yeniseisk and Bratsk.
Russian empire
P. Zharkov "Portrait of Peter I"
On August 30, 1721, the Peace of Nystadt was concluded between Russia and Sweden, according to which Russia received access to the Baltic Sea, annexed the territory of Ingria, part of Karelia, Estland and Livonia.
Russia became a great European power. Peter I accepted the titles “Great” and “Father of the Fatherland” from the Senate, he was proclaimed emperor, and Russia - an empire.
The formation of the Russian Empire was accompanied by a number of reforms.
Public Administration Reform
Creation of the Near Chancellery (or Council of Ministers) in 1699. It was transformed in 1711 into the Governing Senate. Creation of 12 boards with a specific scope of activity and powers.
The public administration system has become more advanced. Activity of the majority government agencies became regulated, the boards had a clearly defined area of activity. Supervisory authorities were created.
Regional (provincial) reform
At the first stage of the reform, Peter I divided Russia into 8 provinces: Moscow, Kyiv, Kazan, Ingria (later St. Petersburg), Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Azov, Siberian. They were controlled by governors who were in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province, and also had full administrative and judicial power. At the second stage of the reform, the provinces were divided into 50 provinces governed by governors, and they were divided into districts led by zemstvo commissars. Governors were deprived of administrative power and resolved judicial and military issues.
There was a centralization of power. Organs local government have almost completely lost influence.
Judicial reform
Peter 1 created new judicial bodies: the Senate, the Justice Collegium, the Hofgerichts, and the lower courts. Judicial functions were also performed by all colleagues except Foreign. The judges were separated from the administration. The court of kissers (an analogue of the jury trial) was abolished, and the principle of the inviolability of an unconvicted person was lost.
A large number of judicial authorities and persons who carried out judicial activity(the emperor himself, governors, governors, etc.) introduced chaos and confusion into the legal proceedings, the introduction of the possibility of “extorting” testimony under torture created the ground for abuse and bias. At the same time, the adversarial nature of the process and the need for the sentence to be based on specific articles of the law corresponding to the case under consideration were established.
Military reforms
The introduction of conscription, the creation of a navy, the establishment of a Military Collegium in charge of all military affairs. Introduction using the Table of Ranks military ranks, uniform for all of Russia. Creation of military-industrial enterprises, as well as military educational institutions. Introduction of army discipline and military regulations.
With his reforms, Peter 1 created a formidable regular army, which by 1725 numbered up to 212 thousand people and a strong navy. Units were created in the army: regiments, brigades and divisions, and squadrons in the navy. Many military victories were won. These reforms (although assessed ambiguously by different historians) created a springboard for further successes of Russian weapons.
Church reform
The institution of the patriarchate was virtually eliminated. In 1701, the management of church and monastic lands was reformed. Peter 1 restored the Monastic Order, which controlled church revenues and the court of monastic peasants. Adopted in 1721 Spiritual regulations, which actually deprived the church of independence. To replace the patriarchate, the Holy Synod was created, the members of which were subordinate to Peter 1, by whom they were appointed. Church property was often taken away and spent on the needs of the emperor.
The church reforms of Peter 1 led to the almost complete subordination of the clergy to secular power. In addition to the elimination of the patriarchate, many bishops and ordinary clergy were persecuted. The Church could no longer pursue an independent spiritual policy and partially lost its authority in society.
Financial reforms
The introduction of many new (including indirect) taxes, monopolization of the sale of tar, alcohol, salt and other goods. Damage (reduction in weight) of a coin. The kopeck becomes the main coin. Transition to poll tax.
Increase in treasury revenues several times. But! It was achieved due to the impoverishment of the bulk of the population, and most of this income was stolen.
Culture and life
Peter I led the fight against external manifestations“outdated” way of life (the most famous is the ban on beards), but no less paid attention to the introduction of the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular people began to appear educational establishments, the first Russian newspaper was founded, translations of many books into Russian appeared. Peter made success in service for the nobles dependent on education.
N. Nevrev "Peter I"
A number of measures were taken to develop education: on January 14, 1700, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow. In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, and mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories. In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened. The goals of mass education were to be served by digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, designed to “ teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry" It was planned to create two such schools in each province, where education was to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was created for the training of priests in 1721. Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met fierce resistance and was cancelled. Peter's attempt to create an all-class primary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death, most of the digital schools under his successors were repurposed as estate schools for training the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.
Peter I created new printing houses.
In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the Academy of Sciences, which was opened after his death.
Of particular importance was the construction of stone Petersburg, in which foreign architects took part and which was carried out according to the plan developed by the Tsar. He created a new urban environment with previously unfamiliar forms of life and pastime (theater, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, lifestyle, food composition, etc. have changed.
By a special decree of the tsar in 1718, assemblies were introduced, representing a new form of communication between people in Russia. At the assemblies, the nobles danced and communicated freely, unlike previous feasts and feasts.
S. Khlebovsky "Assemblies under Peter I"
Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study “art” abroad.
On December 30, 1701, Peter issued a decree that ordered full names to be written in petitions and other documents instead of derogatory half-names (Ivashka, Senka, etc.), not to fall on your knees before the Tsar, and in winter, in the cold, to wear a hat in front of the house in which king, don't take it off. He explained the need for these innovations in this way: “Less baseness, more zeal for service and loyalty to me and the state - this honor is characteristic of the king...”.
Peter tried to change the position of women in Russian society. By special decrees (1700, 1702 and 1724) he prohibited forced marriage. It was prescribed that there should be at least a six-week period between betrothal and wedding, “so that the bride and groom can recognize each other.” If during this time, the decree said, “the groom does not want to take the bride, or the bride does not want to marry the groom,” no matter how the parents insist on it, “there will be freedom.”
The transformations of the era of Peter I led to the strengthening of the Russian state, the creation of a modern European army, the development of industry and the spread of education among the upper classes of the population. An absolute monarchy was established, headed by the emperor, to whom the church was also subordinate (through the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod).
To the question “In what year did Russia become an empire?” not everyone will be able to give an accurate answer. Someone forgot that the country was proudly called by it, someone may not know this at all. But it was precisely at that time that it was recognized as one of the most powerful powers in the world, and there was a significant economic and cultural rise of the state. Therefore, you need to know when this rich in historical events path.
General information
The Russian Empire is a state that existed from 1721 until the February Revolution, when the collapse of the existing political system, and Russia became a republic. The country became an empire after the Northern War during the reign of Peter the Great. The capital changed - it was St. Petersburg, then Moscow, then St. Petersburg, renamed Leningrad after the revolution.
The borders of the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean on the northern borders to the Black Sea on the southern borders, from the Baltic Sea on the western borders to the Pacific Ocean on the eastern borders. Thanks to such a vast territory, Russia was considered the third largest power in the world by area. The head of the state was the emperor, who was an absolute monarch until 1905.
The Russian Empire was founded by Peter the Great, who completely changed the state structure during his reforms. Russia turned from a class-monarchal empire into an absolutist empire. Absolutism is introduced into the Military Regulations. Peter, who took the country as a model Western Europe, decided to proclaim it an imperial power.
To achieve an absolute monarchy, the Boyar Duma and the Patriarchate, which could influence the royal decisions, are abolished. After the introduction of the Table of Ranks, the main support of the monarch is the nobility, and the church becomes synodal, which is subordinate to the emperor. Russia has a permanent army and navy, which allows it to expand Russian borders into westward, access to the Baltic Sea was won. Peter founded St. Petersburg, which later became the capital of the empire.
On October 22 (November 2), 1721, after the end of the Northern War, Russia was proclaimed an empire, and Peter the Great himself became emperor. In the eyes of European rulers, Russia thus showed everyone that it has great political influence and that it must be taken into account. Not all powers recognized the increased influence of Russia; the last to submit was Poland, which laid claim to part of the territories of Kievan Rus.
The period of "enlightened absolutism"
After the death of Peter the Great, the era began palace coup- a time when there was no stability in the country, therefore, there was no significant government growth. Everything changed when, during the next coup, Catherine the Second ascended the throne. During her reign, Russia makes another breakthrough both in foreign policy, and in the internal structure of the state.
During the Russian-Turkish wars, Crimea was conquered, Russia took an active part in the division of Poland, and Novorossiya was being developed. During the colonization of Transcaucasia, Russian interests collided with Persian and Ottoman interests. In 1783, the Treaty of Georgievsk on patronage over Eastern Georgia was signed.
There were also popular unrest. Catherine the Great created a “Charter of Grant to the Nobility,” which exempted them from compulsory military service, but the peasants were still obliged to perform military service. The reaction of the peasantry and Cossacks, from whom the empress took away their liberties, was the “Pugachevshchina.”
Catherine's reign proceeds in the spirit of enlightened absolutism; she personally corresponds with famous French philosophers of that time. The Free Economic Society is founded, the development of science and art is encouraged. But at the same time, the empress understands that large territory The Russian Empire requires strict control and an absolute monarchy.
During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, events took place that revolutionized and completely changed Russian history. Despite the fact that the emperor favored industrial growth and demographic growth, the number of peasants and workers dissatisfied with working conditions is growing: the latter demand an 8-hour working day, and the peasantry wants the division of landowners' lands.
At that time, Russia was trying to expand its Far Eastern borders, this led to a clash of interests with Japan, which resulted in war and defeat, which was a consequence of the revolution. After this, Russia stopped expanding its influence on Far East. The revolution was suppressed, the emperor made concessions - he created a Parliament that allowed political parties. But this did not help: discontent continued to grow, including with the Russification policy in Finland, the Poles were outraged by the loss of Poland's autonomy, and the Jews were outraged by the repressive policies that had increased since the 1880s.
The Russian Empire took part in the First World War, which led to enormous tension for all countries involved. Due to large military expenditures, a huge number of peasants are mobilized, which leads to an aggravation of the food problem. Growing difficulties are causing dissatisfaction with politics and the prevailing state structure of all segments of the population, which results in February revolution 1917, and in 1924 the USSR appears.
Why was the reign of these two emperors and empress discussed? In what year did Russia become an empire? That's right, in 1721, during the reign of Peter the Great, during the reign of the Russian Empire made a big leap in its development, and Nicholas II became the last Russian Emperor, and it was necessary to write about the reasons that led to the collapse of the empire. Russian state had great influence in world politics, the emperors sought to expand their borders, but did not take into account the interests of the common population, who were dissatisfied with the policy, which led to the creation of the republic.
