In obedience to the last commands of Peter, his widow, Catherine, formerly a Livonlan peasant-girl, was proclaimed empress ; but her short reign (1725-7), and that of her aneceasor Peter II. (1727.30), were almost barren of events, and remarkable only for the ascendancy, nodes Catherine, of Prince Menzikoff, and under Pater II. of the Dol goruki family. On the death of Peter IL, Anne, daughter of Ivan, the elder brother of Peter the Great, was called to the throne (1730-40) by the influence of the Dolgoruki faction, on signing an agreement which limited the imperial power In favour of the nobility; but this compulsory act was cancelled under the advice of the chan cellor Osterinann, and the Dolgorukla were disgraced and exiled to Nheria. Another revolution placed on the throne, in 1740, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great by Catherine. In the early part of Elisabeth's reign a war with Sweden commenced (1741), which ended (1743) In the acquisition of part of Finland by Russia. The alliance concluded with Maria Theresa (1747), in the war of the Austrian Sneceadon, and the consequent appearance on the Rhine of 36,000 Russian auxiliaries under Repnin, gave Russia, for the first time, a direct participation in the polities of Western Europe; and In the Seven Years' War a large Russian force, acting as allies of Austria, invaded Prussia. The victories of Gross Jagendorff (1757), and of Kunnersdorff (1759) over Frederick the Great, established the renown of Russian arms, and Berlin was taken by them in 1760 ; while an army of observation was maintained from 1758 in Poland, then a prey to anarchy and confusion. Elizabeth died Jan. 1762, regretted by her subjects, to whom she had endeared herself by the mildness of her domestic administration; and was succeeded by her nephew, Peter duke of Holstein-Gottorp. This prince, after a reign of six months, was dethroned (July 1762) by a conspiracy, and died in prison a week afterwards, as is generally supposed by violence. His consort, Catherine II., was then called to the throne.
The accession of this ambitions and unscrupulous princess (1762-96) gave a fresh impulse to Russian policy, which from this time assumed the steadily aggressivecharacter which it has ever since maintained. On the vacancy of the Polish throne, in 1764, a Russian army dictated the election of Stanislaus Poniatowski; and the complaints of the Porte, at the continued occupation of the country by Russian troops, led to a Turkish war (1768-74), in which the Russian arms were triumphant. A Russian fleet appeared for the first time (1770) in the Mediterranean, and destroyed the Turkish navy at Tchesm6; the land forces subdued Grim-Tartary, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Danube was crossed for the first time in 1773; and the losses of the Porte compelled her, by the treaty of Kntchuk-Kainardji (1774), to acknow ledge the Crim-Tarters independent, and to cede to Russia an extensive tract. of territory. In the meantime the first partition of Poland (1772) had taken place, which gave Polotak and /dohilew to Russia ; and the dangerous revolt of the Cossak Pugatchef, who personated Peter III., was quelled by his capture and death in 1775. The internal administration was placed on a new footing by the division of the empire (1776) into 43 governments (there are now 49) with separate jurisdictions, and by the gradual promulgation (1775-83) of a new code of laws. In the meantime the chains of Poland were daily rivetted tighter ; and the opposition of England to the avowed project of erecting a new Greek empire at Constantinople, on the ruins of the Turkish power, is generally supposed to have given rise to the famoue Armed Neutrality (1780), In which all the northern powers combined with Russia to redid the right of maritime search claimed by Great Britain. Grim-Tartary was seized (1783) and incorporated with Russia ; but this encroachment, though the Porte was compelled at the time to acquiesce, led eventually to the second Turkish war (1787.92), memorable for the sanguinary triumphs of Potemkin and Suwarrow. Choczim, Ocmkow, Bender, and Ismail were successively taken with fearful slaughter; and the peace of Jassy (1792) established the Dnieeter as the boundary of Turkey and Russia. The outbreak of
the French revolution produced a change In the disposition of Russia towards Eogland, with whom an alliance and a commercial treaty were concluded in 1793; but no active part was taken against France, as the attention of the empress was directed towards Poland, by the second partition of which (1793) Russia gained Podolia and the Ukraine, with half of Lithuania and Volhynia. Warsaw was garri soned by the Russians, but a fierce struggle ensued (1794) on the general revolt of the Poles under Kosciusko and Madalinski ; till the storm of Praga by Suwarrow, in which 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, finally crushed all resistance ; and the third and last partition of the kingdom took place the next year, by which the nationality of Poland was extinguished, while Russia gained Courland with the rest of Lithuania and Volhynis, in addition to her former acquisitions.
Catherine IL died the year after the accomplishment of this favourite object of her policy, and was succeeded by her son Paul (1796-1801). He joined (1798) the second grand coalition against France; in pursuance of which the Russian auxiliaries, under Suwarrow and Koreakow, were engaged in Italy and Switzerland in the memorable campaign of 1799; but Paul soon abandoned his allies, concluded peace with Bonaparte (then first consul), and, in 1800, put himself at the bead of the Convention of the North, a union of the northern states, on the principle of the armed neutrality, against the British maritime supremacy. A war with England was impending, when Paul was murdered in his palace (1801) by a band of conspirators.
His son and successor Alexander (1801.25) Immediately effected a pacification with England, and disbanded a force which his father had assembled at Orenberg, with the wild design of marching overland to India. The relations with France continued peaceful till 1805; but Alexander refused to acknowledge Napoleon as emperor, and, joining the Austrian alliance against hint, was personally present at the defeat of Austerlitz. In 1806 the renewed alliance of the Porte with France was made the pretext of a new Turkish war (1806.12), and Moldavia and Wallachia were occupied; but the successive victories of Eylau and Friedland gained by the French (1807), led to the famous con ferences between Alexander and Napoleon, the result of which was the peace of Tilait. Russia joined the ' Continental System' of Napoleon, and became an ally of France ; declaring war (1808) against England and Sweden, the latter of whom was forced to cede, by the peace of Frederikaham (1809); all Finland, East Bothnia, and Aland. The war with the Porte was resumed with fresh vigour in 1810-11.12 ; but the injury which the ' Continental System' inflicted on Russian commerce was becoming insupportable, and the refusal of Alexander to enforce it led to a rupture with France (1812). Alliances were now formed with England and Sweden, and the peace of Bucharest with the Forte extended the Russian frontier to the Pruth. In the autumn • of 1312, Napoleon invaded Russia with 500,000 men, defeated Kuttesoff at Borodino, and advanced to Moscow ; but the country was everywhere laid waste, and the conflagration of the capital itself by the governor Itostopchin compelled the French to retreat in the midst of a winter of unexampled ngour, pursued by the Russians: nine tenths of their vast host either perished or were takcu prisoners. A powerful Russian farce continued to take part in the campaigns of 1813.14 against France, and Alexander entered Paris in triumph. By the congress of Vienna (1815), Warsaw and a large territory, under the name of the kingdom of Poland, were annexed to the crown of Russia, but with a separate administration and free press. A desultory war with Persia (1804.13) had been concluded by the peace of Goolistan, Persia ceding most of her Caucasian provinces, and giving up her claims on Georgia.