ALEXIUS MIKHAILOVICH (1629-1676), tsar of Mus covy, the son of Tsar Michael Romanov and Eudoxia Stry eshnevaya, was born on March 9, 1629. A youth at his father's death (1645), he was committed to the care of Boris Ivanovich Morozov, who recognized the needs of his country and was acces sible to Western ideas. He secured the truce with Poland and avoided complications with the Porte. His domestic policy was equitable, and aimed at relieving the public burdens by limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing many useless and expensive court offices. On Jan. 17, 1648, he procured the mar riage of the tsar with Maria Miloslayskaya, and he himself mar ried her sister Anna ten days later.
The Miloslayskis were typical self-seeking 17th century boy ars, whose extortions made them generally detested. In May 1648 the people of Moscow rose against them, and the young tsar was compelled to dismiss both them and their patron Moro zov. There were disquieting disturbances all over the tsardom culminating in dangerous rebellions at Pskov and Great Nov gorod, with which the Government was so unable to cope that it surrendered, practically granting the malcontents their own terms. The metropolitan Nikon (q.v.), who had displayed tact and courage at Great Novgorod, in consequence became in 165r the tsar's chief minister.
In 1653 the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged from the savage Cossack war, encouraged Alexius to attempt to recover from her secular rival the old Russian lands. The campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted triumph, and scores of towns, including the important fortress of Smolensk, fell into the hands of the Muscovites. In Jan. 1655 the rout of Ochmatov arrested their progress; but in the summer of the same year, the sudden invasion by Charles X. of Sweden for the moment swept the Polish State out of existence ; the Muscovites, unop posed, quickly appropriated nearly everything which was not already occupied by the Swedes, and when at last the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole grand-duchy of Lithuania was the least of the demands of Alexius.
Fortunately for Poland, the tsar and the king of Sweden now quarrelled over the spoil, and at the end of May 1656 Alexius declared war against him. Great things were expected of the Swedish war, but nothing came of it. Dorpat was taken, but countless multitudes were lost in vain before Riga. In the mean time Poland had so far recovered herself ai to become much more dangerous than Sweden. The tsar rid himself of the Swedes by the peace of Kardis (July 2, 1660, whereby Muscovy retro ceded all her conquests. The Polish war dragged on for six years longer and was then concluded by a truce, nominally for 13 years, which proved the most durable of treaties.
By the truce of Andrussowo (Feb. 1, 1667) Vitebsk, Polotsk and Polish Livonia were restored to Poland, but Smolensk and Kiev remained in the hands of the Muscovites, together with the whole eastern bank of the Dnieper. This truce was the achieve ment of Athanasy Orduin-Nashchokin, the first Russian chan cellor and diplomatist in the modern sense, who after the dis grace of Nikon became the tsar's first minister till 167o, when he was superseded by Artamon Matveyev. Nikon had become too powerful for the tsar, and on the return of Alexius from the Polish war there arose a conflict over the question of ecclesi astical authority in the State, ending in Nikon's trial and depri vation in 1667.
Alexius had the art of discovering good advisers and the good sense to employ them. He was not a man of strong character, or he would not have submitted to the dictation of Nikon. He was naturally progressive, though in a timid way, or he would not have supported the reforms of Matveyev. He was learned in his own way, wrote verses and began a history of his own time. His last years were tranquil, in spite of the rebellion of Stenka Razin. By his first wife he had a large family, and by his second, Natalia Naruishkina, two children, the tsarevich Peter and the tsarevna Natalia.
See Robert Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, i9os). ALEXIUS PETROVICH (16go-1718), Russian tsarevich, the sole surviving son of Peter I. and Eudoxia Lopukhina, was born on Feb. 19, 169o. The young tsar married the boyarinya Lopukhina at his mother's command. From the first, her society bored Peter unspeakably, and, after the birth (Oct. 3, 1691) of their second short-lived son Alexander, he practically deserted her. The young Alexius was ignored by his father till he was nine years old, and was privately educated. In 17°3 he was or dered to the field as a private in a bombardier regiment in the army. In 17o4 he was present at the capture of Narva.
In 17°8 Peter sent Alexius to Smolensk to collect provender and recruits, and thence to Moscow to fortify it against Charles XII. At the end of 17oo he went to Dresden for 1 2 months for finishing lessons in French and German, mathematics and forti fication, and, his education completed, he was married on Oct. 14, 171i, greatly against his will, to the Princess Charlotte of Bruns wick-Wolfenbuttel. Three weeks later the bridegroom was hur ried away by his father to Thom to superintend the provisioning of the Russian troops in Poland. For the next 12 months Alexius was kept constantly on the move. His wife joined him at Thom in December, but in April 1712 a peremptory ukase ordered him off to the Army in Pomerania, and in the autumn of the same year he was forced to accompany his father on a tour of inspec tion through Finland. Immediately on his return from Finland, Alexius was despatched by his father to Staraya Rusya and Ladoga to see to the building of new ships. This was the last com mission entrusted to him. On his return to the capital, Peter, in order to see what progress his son had made in mechanics and mathematics, asked him to draw something of a technical nature for his inspection. Alexius, in order to escape such an ordeal, disabled his right hand by a pistol-shot. In no other way could the tsarevich have offended his father so deeply. He had be haved like a cowardly recruit who mutilates himself to escape military service. After this, Peter employed him no more. He no longer pressed him to attend public functions. Alexius rejoiced at this welcome change, but he had cause rather to fear it.
On Oct. 22, 1715, Alexius's consort, the Princess Charlotte, died, after giving birth to a son, the Grand-duke Peter, after wards Peter II. On the day of the funeral, Peter addressed to Alexius a stern letter urging him no longer to resemble the sloth ful servant in the parable, and threatening to cut him off if he did not acquiesce in his father's plans. Alodus wrote a pitiful reply to his father, offering to renounce the succession in favour of his baby half-brother Peter, who had been born the day after the Princess Charlotte's funeral. In Jan. 1716 he wrote to his father for permission to become a monk. Still Peter did not despair. On Aug. 26, 1716, he wrote to Alexius from abroad urg ing him, if he desired to remain tsarevich, to join him and the Army without delay.
But Alexius fled to Vienna and placed himself under the pro tection of his brother-in-law, the Emperor Charles VI., who sent him for safety first to the Tyrolean fortress of Ahrenberg, and finally to the castle of San Elmo at Naples. He was accompanied throughout his journey by his mistress, the Finnish girl Afrosina. That the emperor sincerely sympathized with Alexius, and sus pected Peter of harbouring murderous designs against his son, is plain from his confidential letter to George I. of England, whom he consulted.
Peter's agitation was extreme. The flight of the tsarevich was a reproach and a scandal. He must be recovered and brought back to Russia at all hazards. This task was accomplished by Count Peter Tolstoi, the most subtle and unscrupulous of Peter's servants; but terrorized though he was, Alexius would only con sent to return on his father's solemnly swearing, "before God and His judgment seat," that if he came back he should not be punished, but cherished as a son and allowed to live quietly on his estates and marry Afrosina.
On Jan. 31, 1718, the tsarevich reached Moscow. On Feb. 18 a "confession" was extorted from Alexius which implicated most of his friends, and he then publicly renounced the succession to the throne in favour of the baby grand-duke Peter Petrovich. A reign of terror ensued, in the course of which the ex-tsaritsa Eudoxia was dragged from her monastery and publicly tried for alleged adultery, while all who had in any way befriended Alexius were impaled, broken on the wheel or otherwise done to death. In April 1718 fresh confessions were extorted from Alexius, now half idiotic with fright. Yet even now there were no actual facts to go upon. The worst that could be brought against him was that he had "wished" his father's death. In the eyes of Peter, his son was now a self-convicted and most dangerous traitor, whose life was forfeit. But there was no getting over the fact that his father had sworn "before the Almighty and His judg ment seat" to pardon him and let him live in peace if he returned to Russia. But did the enormity of the tsarevich's crime absolve the tsar from the oath? This question was solemnly submitted by Peter to a grand council of prelates, senators, ministers and other dignitaries on June 13, 1718. The clergy left the matter to the tsar's own decision. The temporal dignitaries declared the evidence to be insufficient and suggested that Aleldus should be examined by torture. Accordingly, on June 19, the weak and ailing tsarevich received 25 strokes with the knout (as then ad ministered, nobody ever survived 3o), and on the 24th 15 more. He expired two days later in the guard-house of the citadel of St. Petersburg, two days after the senate had condemned him to death for "imagining" rebellion against his father, and for. "hoping" for the co-operation of the common people and the armed intervention of his brother-in-law, the emperor.
See R. N. Bain, The First Romanovs (London, 19os) ; Comte de Vogue, Mazeppa. Un changement de regne (Paris, 1884)•