Ivan the Terrible?
In 1574, Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible, was crowned as the first tsar of Russia. In his reign, he updated the laws that Ivan the Great had established, known as the Sudebnik of 1550. He also established a sort of parliament, the Zemsky Sobor. He also updated the military, reduced the church’s power, and reorganized the government. In addition, he doubled the size of Russia by conquering modern-day Kazakhstan and other Tatar kingdoms along the Volga River. He also expanded past the Ural Mountains. However, the Tsardom was weakened by the lengthy and costly Livonian War against the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Sweden, and Denmark–and Norway. However, Russia had a significant defeat on the Tatars at the Battle of Molodi.
Internal Conflicts
With the death of Ivan IV’s sons, there was nobody to ascend the throne. This marked the end of the Rurik dynasty in 1598. Along with the famine of 1601–1603, foreign invasion and intervention and the rise of pretenders to the throne led to the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth invaded Russia and took the capital Moscow. With no army, there was nobody to fight back. In 1612, the Poles fought and lost against the Russian volunteer corps led by merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The Romanov dynasty was established by the Zemsky Sobor, and Russia slowly but surely recovered from the Time of Troubles.
Cossacks & Colonialism
Russia continued expanding, and the Age of the Cossacks began. The Cossacks were a group of elite warriors from Ukraine and Crimea. They offered to give Ukraine to Russia, but Poland took notice and started the Russo-Polish War, also called the Thirteen Years’ War. Meanwhile, Russian explorers explored Siberia and colonized it. They even went as far as to establish colonies on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. This expansion gave Russia its colossal size and countries known by a new name, Imperial Russia.
