Russian Empire:
Peter I of Russia, first Russian Emperor: Under Peter the Great, Russia declared itself an Empire in 1721 and became one of the world’s powers. Reigning from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated the Swedes in the Great Northern War, forcing them to cede West Karelia and Ingria (the two territories lost to Russia during the Period of Troubles), as well as Estland and Livland, securing Russia’s access to the sea and sea trade. On the Baltic Sea, Peter founded a new capital city which he named Saint Petersburg. Peter the Great’s reforms brought western European cultural influences to Russia.
Peter I’s son, Yelizaveta who reigned 1741–62 led Russia to participate in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). In this war Russia annexed East Prussia and even captured Berlin. However, after Yelizaveta’s death, the area was returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by the pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia.
Catherine II (“the Great”) reigned 1762–96, presiding over the Russian Age of Enlightenment. He added to Russian political control throughout the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and annexed it all to Russian territory at the Partition of Poland, pushing Russia’s boundaries into Central Europe.
In the south, after winning the Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine extended Russia’s borders to the Black Sea, defeating the Crimean Khanate.
Subsequently, after winning against the Qajar dynasty in the Russo-Persian Wars, in the mid-19th century Russia also increased its possessions in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus, forcing the territories of present-day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia to join Russia.
Alexander I (1801–25) took Finland from the Kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time, Russia was colonizing Alaska and even establishing cities in California, such as Fort Ross. In 1820 a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.
Together with its alliances with several European countries, Russia fought against Napoleon. The French invasion of Russia during the heyday of Napoleon in 1812 was a complete failure for France. The combination of fierce Russian resistance coupled with the bitter cold of winter meant that 95% of the Grande Armée’s pan-European troops were killed.
Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly, Russian troops managed to drive Napoleon from the country and race through Europe in the War of the Sixth Coalition. Alexander I represented the Russian delegation at the Congress of Vienna which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.
Late in the conservative regime of Nicholas I (1825–55), Russia’s European triumph was interrupted by defeat in the Crimean War. Between 1847 and 1851, about one million people died from cholera in Asia.
Nikolai Alexander II’s successor (1855–81) made significant changes in the country, among them the emancipation reforms of 1861. These major reforms led to the industrialization and modernization of the Russian army, which later succeeded in liberating Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.
