The Romanov dynasty ruled for 304 years until 1917 with Tsar Nikolai II as the last tsar. In February 1917 the Provisional Government was formed under Prince Lyvov and Alexander Kerensky until 25 October 1917, when it was replaced by the Bolshevik Revolutionary Government by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Nomadic pastoralism flourished in the Pontus-Caspian steppes beginning in the Copper Age.
The ancestors of the modern Russian people are the Slavic tribes, whose original home is considered by some scholars to be the forested area of the Pinsk Swamp. Russian history begins with the migration of Scandinavian nations known as the Varangians led by the semi-legendary figure Rurik who crossed the Baltic Sea and in 862 AD entered the city of Novgorod and ruled there.
The Eastern Slavs gradually settled in Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and the other from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, Eastern Slavs made up the bulk of the population in Western Russia, and assimilated with the indigenous Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Merya, Muromian, and Meshchera.
Kievan Rus’ in the 11th century: The formation of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of the Varangians, Vikings who wandered along the waterways that stretched from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian seas.
According to the Main Chronicle, a Varangian from the people of Rus, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg went south and conquered Kiev, previously paying tribute to the Khazars. Oleg, Rurik’s son Igor and Igor’s son Sviatoslav then subdued all the local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
In the 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus’ became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe.[40] The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) were the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic legal code written, Russkaya Pravda.
Eventually Kievan Rus’ was crushed, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–40, which resulted in the destruction of Kiev, and the death of about half of Rus’ population. The invaders, who became known as the Tatars, formed the Golden Horde state, which plundered the Russian empire and ruled over southern and central Russia for more than two centuries.
