Tsar

Tsar · 1672 – 1725

Peter the Great was the Russian tsar who transformed Russia into a major European power, modernizing its army, government and society along Western lines and founding the new capital of Saint Petersburg.

• Modernizing Russia
• Founding Saint Petersburg

Tsar · 1530 – 1584

Ivan the Terrible was the first Tsar of Russia, who centralized power, expanded Russian territory into Siberia and the Volga region, and created the Russian autocratic state — but also unleashed a reign of terror that earned him his epithet.

• First Tsar of Russia
• Expansion of Russia

Tsar · 1868 – 1918

Nicholas II was the last Tsar of Russia whose failures of leadership — autocratic rigidity, military catastrophe in World War I, and refusal to reform — led to his abdication in 1917, the Bolshevik seizure of power, and his execution with his family by the Soviets in 1918.

• Last Tsar of Russia
• Russian Revolution