With the reign of this prince, who married Sophia, the niece of the last Greek emperor, a new epoch commences in the history of Russia. He defeated the Poles and Lithuanians, reduced the Tartars of Casan to tribute, and re-united under his authority most of the minor Russian principalities; but his capture of Novgorod (1475), and the exactions which he levied on the merchants and citizena, gave a death-blow to the commerce of that famoua emporium. The embassies of the European powers, Germany, Poland, Venice, the Holy See, dtc., were now first seen at Moscow ; and though the character of Ivan is sullied by the cruel despotism of his internal administration, he is justly entitled to rank as the founder of the Russian empire, the power and splendour of which date from him. In the reign of hie son, Basil IV., the Tartars of the Crimea, incited by the Poles, committed fearful ravages throughout Russia in 1510; and in 1520 their khan advanced to Moscow, which he spared only on promise of tribute. His successor Ivan IV., Vasilovitch, surnamed the Terrible (1533-84), was crowned (1545) by the title of Czar, which he substituted for that of Veliki Knez. The first acts of his reign were the institution of the corps of Strelitzes (archers), the first regular army of Russia; and the reform of jurisprudence by the publication of a regular code of laws named Youdebnik; but he was unsuccessful in his efforts to procure (by an embassy to Charles V. in 1547) artisans and engineers from Germany for the instruction of his subjects. The voluntary adhesion of the Don Cossaks (1649) secured to Russia the services of those active and warlike auxiliaries. In 1553 the English trade through Archangel was first opened. Siberia was acquired iu 1581. About this period the art of printing, and also several branches of manufacture, were introduced into Russia. The cruelty and ferocity of Ivan increased with his years : his eldest eon perished in 1584 by a blow from the hand of his father, and Ivan himself died the same year. Though a remorseless and sanguinary tyrant, he had raised the country by his energetic policy to a hitherto unexampled pitch of prosperity. With his son Feodor, or Theodore, in 1593, tho male line of the house of Rurik, which bad ruled under 56 sovereigns for 736 years, became finally extinct.
Boris Godooneffi the brother-in-law and minister of Feodor, was placed on the throne, and commenced his reign (159S-1605) by the emancipation of the serfs and other salutary measures; but he soon degenerated into an arbitrary and cruel tyrant, and at length lost his throne and life in a contest with an adventurer who declared himself to be the lost Demetriva, brother of Feodor, whose pretensions were supported by Poland. The real history of this person bas never been satisfactorily ascertained, and many writers consider his claims to have been well founded ; but after ruling scarcely a year he perished (1606) in a popular revolt headed by a boyar named Basil Schuiski, who thereupon became Czar. But a second false Demetriva speedily started up. The Poles and Swedes, who each aspired to seat a prince of their own nation on the throne, invaded the country, and were supported by various factions among the nobles ; and for seven years (1606.18) Russia became the prey of desolating anarchy and civil war. The Swedes occupied Kexholm and Novgorod, and the Polish prince Ladislas, after taking Smolensk, advanced to Moscow, and sent Schuiski prisoner to Warsaw (1610). But tho prospect of the dis memberment of their country roused the national spirit of the Rus sians; the Poles were driven from Moscow (1613), after a sanguinary battle ; and in the following year Michael Romanoff, a descendant by females from the house of Rurik, was called to the throne with a unanimity among all orders in the state, which the sense of imminent danger alone could produce.
The accession of the line of Romanoff gives a new character to the history of Russia, which henceforward, from being regarded as a barbarous and semi-Asiatic power, begins to assume an important place among European states. The long reign of Michael (1618-45), afforded him time for the consolidatiou of his own power and the restoration of his dominions from the depression caused by the late calamities. Though compelled by the boyars to re-establish the slavery of the peasants, he partially succeeded in redressing the abuses which the preceding anarchy had occasioned ; and he gave a fresh impulse to trade by the conclusion of commercial treaties with England (1623) and with Franco (1629). In the reign of his son Alexis in 1667, after a long contest with Poland, the truce of Audrus , sow (converted into a permanent peace in 1636) gave to Russia Tchernigow, Kiew, and the Ukraine, with the protectorate of the Dnieper Coasaks. About the same period internal commotions, and a revolt of the Don Comics, occasioned considerable trouble to Alexis.
The last years of his reign were devoted to internal improvements and the advancement of civilisation. Numeroua foreigners, particu larly Scotch and Germans, were attracted to Russia, where they introduced the arts and manufactures of their own countries ; and the publication of a revised code of laws gave a settled character to the national jurisprudence. Alexis died in 1676, at the age of 47, leaving several children by his two wives. The short reign of his eldest son Feodor (1676-82), was remarkable only for the first war between Russia and the Porte (1678-82), which ended in the final cession of Ukraine to Russia; and for the destruction at Moscow of all the charters and muniments of the nobility, who thenceforward took precedence according to military rank. Feodor left no issue, and at his death, Ivan and Peter, both cone of Alexis, but by different wives, were placed jointly on the throne, under the guardianship of Sophia, the sister of Ivan, an ambitious princess, who aspired to the solo exercise of authority in her own person. The attempts of Sophia to exclude Peter from all share in the government brought on a revolution (1639) in favour of Peter, who ascended the throne as sole sovereign.
The genius of this future regenerator of Russia had been cultivated by the instruction of a Genevese named Le Fort, who had been his tutor since 1634, and the energy of his mind speedily developed itself in action. His first care was the reform of the army, and having suc ceeded in disciplining some regiments in the European manner, he attacked and took Azof from the Turks in 1694, being aided by a flotilla which he built on the Don, and which was the first Russian nary. In 1697 he quitted his dominions, and travelled for nearly two years in England, Holland, &c., in order to acquaint himself with mechanics and ship-building, and to engage artisans and engineers for his service. A sanguinary revolt of the strelitzes, in favour of Sophia, having occurred during his absence, the corps was abolished at his return, and replaced by regular troops. The same year (1698) he founded the first Russian order of knighthood, that of St. Andrew ; and the cession of Azof by the Porte at the peace of Carlowitz (1699) at length gave him a port on the Black Sea. His next aim was to acquire a territory on the Baltic, and with this view he joined the Northern League with Denmark and Poland against Sweden; and though his raw levies were defeated at Narva (1700) by Charles XII., he succeeded daring the nest two years in occupying logria and Carelia, while the Swedes were engaged in the Polish war; and his new capital city of Petersburg was founded on this territory (1703) at the month of the Neva. While these warlike operations were going on, schools, printing-presses, manufactories, and hospitals were everywhere established ; the university of Moscow was founded in 1705; and the overgrown power of the clergy was curtailed by the abolition of the patriarchate, the Czar declaring himself head of the church. In the course of the war with Charles XII., Wiborg, Revel, Riga, with all Eathonla and Livonia, fell into the hands of the Russians; and Frederick Augustus, who had been dethroned by Charles XII., remounted the throne of Poland, in which kingdom Russian influence continued from that time paramount. But a war (1710) with Turkey, arising from the shelter afforded by that power to Charles, bad a disastrous result ; the Russians were surrounded on the I'ruth, and Peter was compelled to purchase the peace of Falczy (1711) by the restoration of Asof and other humiliating concessions. In 1716-17 Peter again travelled through Holland and Denmark, and visited France, where be concluded an alliance with Louis XV. On his return, his Non Alexis, who had previously offended him by his weak and vicious coarse of life, was tried on pretence of conspiracy, and condemned, but died, perhaps from natural causes, in prison. The Swedish war, which had langtitalted after the death of Charles XIL In 1718, was at length terminated (1721) by the peace of Nystadt. Russia became thenceforward the great Northern power in place of Sweden ; and Peter exchanged the title of Czar for that of Emperor and Autocrat of all the Ravi's, which his euccessors have ever since borne. In 1723 be availed himself of the distracted state of Persia to seize a part of their territory on the western shores of the Caspian, which Shah Talimasp consented to cede to him; but this was his last exploit. He died January 25, 1725, aged 53. In 36 years be had raised Russiafrom a semi-barbarous state to a pitch of military strength and political importance, which placed her on a level with the first powers of Europe.