Tsar Gazing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ivan IV

Ivan IV, better known as Ivan the Terrible, was crowned the first Tsar of All Russia in 1547. His reign was marked by sweeping reforms, centralization of power, and military conquests into Siberia. And then was that whole paranoia-fueled reign of terror thing for which he's best known.

Don't get me wrong. Ivan started strong enough by reforming the legal code, curbing the power of the nobility, and building institutions. But after the death of his beloved wife Anastasia and a few betrayals (some real, some imagined), things took a rather dark turn. He launched a brutal campaign against the boyars (the aristocracy), created the Oprichnina (his own personal secret police), and ruled with increasing paranoia and abject cruelty.

The painting ("Ivan the Terrible and His Son") by Ilya Repin, captures a sweet family moment: Ivan, in a fit of rage, beat and killed his own son, the heir to the throne, with his scepter. The image of a grief-stricken Ivan cradling the dying prince is one of the most haunting in Russian art, and indeed, in Russian history. It would also effect the coming succession "troubles".

Answer: Boris

Feodor I was the son of Ivan the Terrible, but he wasn't quite the fearsome figure his father was. In fact he was known as Feodor the Bellringer for his reclusive piousness and his genuine love of ringing church bells, neither of which paints a very imposing picture. Feodor had little interest or aptitude for statecraft. As a result, the real power during his reign was held by his capable brother-in-law and advisor, Boris Godunov.

Feodor's younger brother, Dmitry, had been exiled with his mother to Uglich, where he died in mysterious circumstances in 1591, when he accidentally stabbed himself in the throat. Wait, wait! Hear me out. He was having a seizure at the time and... yeah, I don't buy it either. Whether it really was a tragic accident or a political assassination remains debated, but it was largely suspected Boris was involved, and that would haunt his reign.

When Feodor died childless in 1598, the Rurik dynasty ended after more than 700 years. With no obvious heir, a national assembly of nobles (the Zemsky Sobor... we'll meet them again) elected Boris Godunov as tsar, the first non-Rurikid ruler of Russia. His reign (1598-1605) began well, but a series of devastating famines, unrest among the nobility, and public suspicion over Dmitry's death accidental throat stabbing would erode his popularity. And thus began the Time of Troubles, a chaotic period of impostors (see the notorious False Dmitry), foreign invasions, famine, and civil strife. Boris's authority collapsed, and he died under mysterious circumstances in 1605, possibly by suicide. Russia wouldn't find stability again until 1613, when a new dynasty was founded.

Answer: Michael I

The Time of Troubles (1598-1613) was one of the darker chapters in Russian history, marked by civil war, famine, foreign invasions, and seemingly everyone in the country claiming to be Dmitry, the long-dead son of Ivan the Terrible. After years of chaos and failed rulers, including the unpopular Boris Godunov and the puppet Vasily IV, Russia was desperate for a little stability.

In 1613, a national assembly (the Zemsky Sobor again) elected Michael Romanov, a 16-year-old nobleman and distant relative of the late Tsar Feodor I (Michael's grandfather was Feodor's brother-in-law), as the new tsar. His election marked the end of the Time of Troubles and the beginning of the Romanov dynasty, which would rule until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Michael I wasn't chosen for his political skill (in fact, there was none to be found) but precisely because he was young, unambitious, and came from a respected, moderately noble family. He actually grew into the role, eventually stabilizing the country with help from his advisors and his father Filaret, who would become Patriarch of Moscow. It was during Michael's reign that Russian explorers finally reached the Pacific Ocean.

Answer: Peter I

Peter I, better known as Peter the Great, looked west with envy. He wanted Russia to be a major European power, and with some work, he made it happen. When Peter took the throne (initially co-ruling with his half-brother Ivan V), Russia was still behind much of Europe in terms of technology, military power, and political influence.

Over his lengthy rule, Peter transformed Russia through major reforms. He modernized the military, built a navy from next to nothing, revamped the government and tax system, and went so far as to force the nobility to shave their beards and wear Western-style clothing. He also founded St. Petersburg in 1703, which he made the new capital, a so-called "window to the West."

After his victory in the Great Northern War against Sweden, Peter declared Russia an empire and had his title officially upgraded to "Emperor of All Russia" by the newly created Senate. Peter's reign wasn't all lollipops and giggles, but he definitely transformed Russia into a major power, and the country would never be the same.

Answer: Catherine II

Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, wasn't actually Russian. She entered the world in 1729 as Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German princess. However, she married into Russian royalty, converted to Orthodoxy, and played the political game like a champ. In 1762, after the unpopular Peter III (her husband) was overthrown in a coup (possibly with her knowledge), Catherine took the throne. Peter III is another example of a member of the Russian ruling class dying under "mysterious circumstances". Her reign lasted 34 years, making her Russia's longest-ruling female leader. During that time, she vastly expanded the Russian Empire, most notably into the Crimea and Black Sea region, securing warm-water ports. Under her rule, Russian settlements also grew in Alaska, extending Russia's reach into North America.

Catherine was a child of the Enlightenment and fancied herself a "philosopher queen." She traded correspondences with leading intellectuals of the day, including Voltaire and Diderot, and pursued legal reforms, education projects, and limited modernization efforts. However, she stopped short of freeing the serfs, worried about the effects of destabilizing the nobility's power.

Answer: Alexander I

Alexander I, sometimes called Alexander the Blessed, had one of the most complicated and eventful reigns in Russian history. He inherited the throne in 1801 after the assassination of his father, Paul I, an event many believe he tacitly approved, because it's Russia. At first, Alexander showed promise as a reformer, influenced by Enlightenment ideals, but the upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars would dominate much of his reign.

His relationship with Napoleon Bonaparte was a diplomatic yo-yo. At times an ally, at times an enemy, Alexander signed the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, aligning Russia with France. But this uneasy alliance soon soured over Napoleon's ambitions and that whole invasion-of-Russia thing in 1812. That invasion was Napoleon's undoing. Alexander refused to capitulate as Napoleon advanced, and the Russian strategy of scorched earth starved the French of resources. After the burning of Moscow, Napoleon retreated in defeat through the brutal Russian winter, losing most of his army.

Alexander emerged a hero of Europe, leading Russian forces all the way to Paris in 1814, and playing a central role at the Congress of Vienna, where Europe's borders were redrawn after Napoleon's defeat. Though he had once embraced reform, Alexander became increasingly conservative and mystical in his later years, distancing himself from liberalism and becoming a symbol of autocracy.

Answer: Nicholas I

Nicholas I, who ruled from 1825 until 1855, came to power under exciting circumstances. The sudden death of his older brother Alexander I left a confusing line of succession, and in the resulting power vacuum, a group of liberal-minded army officers launched the Decembrist Revolt in December 1825. Nicholas crushed it decisively, and from that time on, his reign would be defined by repression and rigid autocracy.

Nicholas saw himself as the guardian of Orthodox faith, absolute monarchy, and Russian nationalism. He centralized power to an extraordinary degree, established a sprawling secret police (the infamous Third Section), and brutally cracked down on dissent, revolutionaries, and non-Russian cultures within the empire. He also pursued aggressive policies of Russification and antisemitic restrictions, especially targeting Jewish communities with residency limits, forced conscription, and limited civil rights.

Abroad, Nicholas's ambitions stretched far. He was dubbed the "Gendarme of Europe" for aiding other leaders in suppressing revolution, and he expanded Russian influence into the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Balkans. But this expansionism came at a cost. His aggressive posture toward the weakening Ottoman Empire helped spark the Crimean War (1853-1856), in which Russia faced off against an alliance of Britain, France, and the Ottomans. Russia's defeat revealed how far the empire had fallen behind Western Europe in military and technological development. Nicholas died in 1855, midway through that war, likely from pneumonia. The Russia he left behind was one of harsh repression and imperial ambition, setting the stage for the reforms of his successors.

Answer: Alexander II

Alexander II reigned from 1855 to 1881, and is often remembered as the Tsar Liberator for one of the most sweeping and historic reforms in Russian history: the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. More than 20 million people gained legal freedom in a move Alexander saw as necessary to modernize Russia and prevent unrest. He famously said, "It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until it abolishes itself from below."

Alexander's reforms didn't stop there. He abolished corporal punishment, reformed the judicial system to introduce public trials and independent courts, created local self-governing councils called zemstvos, and expanded education. He also undertook major military and financial reforms to bring Russia more in line with Western Europe after the empire's poor performance in the Crimean War.

But his liberalization was met with both joy and hostility. Conservative nobles resented the loss of control, and radicals felt the reforms didn't go far enough. In the end, Alexander's half-measures satisfied neither side. A growing revolutionary movement ended in tragedy when, on March 13, 1881, Alexander II was assassinated in St. Petersburg by members of the People's Will, a radical revolutionary group. Perhaps ironically, he had just signed off on a plan to create a representative assembly, the closest Russia had come to a constitutional monarchy at that time. His assassination shocked the country and motivated his successor, Alexander III, to abandon reform in favor of tried and true reactionary autocracy.

Answer: Alexander III

Alexander III took the throne in 1881 after witnessing the violent assassination of his father, Alexander II, by radical revolutionaries. Deeply affected by the event, Alexander III rejected his father's liberal policies and ushered in an era of reactionary conservatism and authoritarian rule. He strengthened the autocracy, reversed many reforms, and cracked down hard on political dissent, believing that Russia needed stability, not openness.

He rolled back judicial reforms, curtailed the power of local self-government (those zemstvos we mentioned), imposed strict censorship, and expanded the secret police to root out revolutionaries. He also pushed a renewed policy of Russification, forcing minority groups to adopt Russian language and culture, and intensified antisemitic restrictions, including pogroms and discriminatory laws against Jewish communities.

Yet, despite his domestic iron-fisted rule, Alexander III earned the nickname "The Peacemaker" (Tsar-Mirotvorets) because he kept Russia out of foreign wars during his entire reign, no small feat in a century defined by imperial conflict. He believed Russia should focus on internal strength and modernization, especially after the costly Crimean War and his father's turbulent rule. His reign provided a brief period of relative international calm for the empire, but his refusal to continue political modernization arguably helped set the stage for unrest during the reign of his son and successor.

Answer: Nicholas II

Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, ruled from 1894 until his abdication in 1917. His reign began with some promise but quickly unraveled due to war, revolution, and a series of mistakes that broke Russia. Though he was a devoted family man and true to his faith and duty, he lacked the political acumen and decisiveness needed to govern an empire already on the brink.

One of the critical blows to his rule was Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I, which Nicholas entered partly out of loyalty to Serbia and partly to preserve Russia's influence in the Balkans. Unfortunately, the war exposed the inefficiencies of the Russian military and economy, leading to mass casualties, food shortages, and public unrest. In a deeply unpopular move, Nicholas took direct command of the Russian army in 1915, leaving the capital under the influence of the mystic Rasputin and his wife Alexandra.

By March 1917, the situation was unsustainable. With workers striking, soldiers mutinying, and revolution in full swing, Nicholas was forced to abdicate, ending more than 300 years of Romanov rule. He and his family were eventually executed by Bolsheviks in 1918.