Peter the Great
1672 -1725 Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great (1672–1725) brought autocracy into Russia and played a major role in bringing his country into the European state system.[82] Russia had now become the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of the land was unoccupied, and travel was slow. Much of its expansion had taken place in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian settlement of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the reconquest of Kiev, and the pacification of the Siberian tribes. However, a population of only 14 million was stretched across this vast landscape. With a short growing season grain yields trailed behind those in the West and potato farming was not yet widespread. As a result, the great majority of the population workforce was occupied with agriculture. Russia remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade, communication and manufacturing were seasonally dependent.[83]
1762 – 1796 Catherine the Great
Nearly forty years were to pass before a comparably ambitious ruler appeared on the Russian throne. Catherine II, “the Great” (r. 1762–1796), was a German princess who married the German heir to the Russian crown. Finding him incompetent, Catherine tacitly consented to his murder and in 1762 she became ruler.[89][90] Catherine enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot (“despot” is not derogatory in this context.)[91] She patronized the arts, science and learning. She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great. Catherine promulgated the Charter to the Gentry reaffirming rights and freedoms of the Russian nobility and abolishing mandatory state service. She seized control of all the church lands, drastically reduced the size of the monasteries, and put the surviving clergy on a tight budget.[92]
1796 – 1825 Alexandre I. Derrotarà Napoleó
1825 – 1855 Nicolau IThe tsar was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I (1825–1855), who at the onset of his reign was confronted with an uprising. The background of this revolt lay in the Napoleonic Wars, when a number of well-educated Russian officers traveled in Europe in the course of the military campaigns, where their exposure to the liberalism of Western Europe encouraged them to seek change on their return to autocratic Russia. The result was the Decembrist Revolt (December 1825), the work of a small circle of liberal nobles and army officers who wanted to install Nicholas’ brother as a constitutional monarch. But the revolt was easily crushed, leading Nicholas to turn away from liberal reforms and champion the reactionary doctrine “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality”.[105]
1855-1881 Alexandre II. Reforma, abolició dels serfs 1855 1881
alexandre ii aboleix la servitud 1l 1855 1881 reformes i prosperitat
1881 – 1894 Alexander III (1881–1894) was throughout his reign a staunch reactionary who revived the maxim of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and National Character”.[135] A committed Slavophile, Alexander III believed that Russia could be saved from chaos only by shutting itself off from the subversive influences of Western Europe. In his reign Russia concluded the union with republican France to contain the growing power of Germany, completed the conquest of Central Asia, and exacted important territorial and commercial concessions from China.
1894 – 1917 Alexander was succeeded by his son Nicholas II (1894–1917). The Industrial Revolution, which began to exert a significant influence in Russia, was meanwhile creating forces that would finally overthrow the tsar. Politically, these opposition forces organized into three competing parties: The liberal elements among the industrial capitalists and nobility, who believed in peaceful social reform and a constitutional monarchy, founded the Constitutional Democratic party or Kadets in 1905. Followers of the Narodnik tradition established the Socialist-Revolutionary Party or Esers in 1901, advocating the distribution of land among those who actually worked it—the peasants. A