European Kingdoms

The Russias

The Viking era (especially in relation to Swedish Vikings) brought about radical changes to the lands lying to the east and south of the Baltic countries. A number of ancient towns such as Old Ladoga, Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk, Kiev, and so on emerged on the shores of the great rivers of Russia. Big centres like these attracted Vikings, eastern Slavs, Finno-Ugric and Baltic people. The close of the ninth century witnessed the formation of the united Old Russian state, accompanied by the rise of Russians as the dominant force in this society. Trading centres such as Grodno, Volkovosk, and Novogorodok, were also founded by Russians on the former territories of the Lithuanians and the Yatvyags.

Grand Principality of Kiev
AD 862 - 1154

Ruled by the Rurik dynasty which was founded by a noble from the northern city of Novgorod.

862 - 879

Rurik of Novgorod

First grand duke. Initially forbade Kiev principality.

879 - 912

Oleg

Took Slavic Kiev and made it his capital.

912 - 945

Igor I

945 - 955

St Olga

955 - 972

Sviatoslav

971

Kiev is defeated by Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces.

973 - 980

Yaropolk

Great-grandson of Rurik.

980

Vladimir I returns from exile in Scandinavia to try to claim the Kievan throne from his brother. Seeking an alliance with Ragnvald of Polotsk through marriage to his daughter, Rogneda, her refusal triggers an attack on Polotsk which results in the death of Ragnvald and his son. Rogneda is taken by force to be Vladimir's wife.

980 - 1015

Volodymyr / St Vladimir I the Great

Brother.

981

Galicia is mentioned by Nestor, who describes the passage of Volodymyr as he enters into Poland and claims this region for his own.

988

Vladimir converts to Christianity, after choosing between all the options.

1014

Vladimir appoints his son Boris as his heir, apparently pushing aside his accepted heir, Yaroslav, who is governing the vassal state of Novgorod. Yaroslav refuses to pay tribute and only Vladimir's death prevents a war. Yarolslav goes to war anyway to recover 'his' throne in Kiev, battling against his half-brother, Sviatopolk. Other brothers, Boris, Gleb and Svyatoslav, are brutally murdered.

1015 - 1019

Sviatopolk I

Son.

1018

Yaroslav manages to secure Kiev, but Sviatopolk strikes back with support from his father-in-law, Bloeslaw I of Poland.

1019 - 1054

Yaroslav I the Wise

Half-brother. Grand prince of Novgorod & Kiev.

1019

Yaroslav's victory over his half-brother is thanks in large part to his loyal Novgorod subjects. He rewards them with numerous freedoms and privileges, laying the foundations for the later Novgorod republic.

1020

Prince Briacheslav of Polotsk attacks and sacks Novgorod, but on his way back he is cornered at the River Sudoma by Yaroslav's army. Defeated, Briacheslav flees, abandoning his booty from Novgorod, but Yaroslav pursues him and forces him to sign a treaty in 1021 granting him Usvyat and Vitebsk.

1030 - 1031

Yaroslav leads a campaign into the Estonian lands and conquers the south-eastern parish of Tartu. The following year, he also gains Galicia from Poland.

1054 - 1068

Izhaslav

Deposed by the Kievan Uprising.

c.1055

The Kiev empire splits into rival principalities, although Kiev still exerts a degree of control over them.

c.1061

The south-eastern Estonian territory of Tartu is lost.

1065 - 1067

Intent on staking a claim to the Kievan throne despite his ineligibility, Prince Vseslav of Polotsk begins a campaign to secure Kievan territory. Unable to enter the capital, which is held by Yaroslav's three sons, he attacks Pskov and is repulsed. Between 1066-1067 he attacks and pillages Novgorod, burning the city. The Kievan prince who governs Novgorod, Mstislav, flees to his father in Kiev, and retribution is not long in coming. Kiev's princes join forces and march on Polotsk's south-eastern city of Minsk, sacking it and defeating Vseslav at the Battle of the River Nemiga on 3 March 1067. Subsequently imprisoned in Kiev, Vseslav is freed during an uprising against the ruling dynasty and is proclaimed grand prince of Kiev. Grand Prince Izhaslav flees to Poland and returns months later with an army. Vseslav flees back to Polotsk.

1068 - 1069

Vseslav Briacheslavich

Prince of Polotsk.

1069 - 1073?

Izhaslav I

Restored.

1071

After years of fighting against Prince Vseslav of Polotsk, Izhaslav finally secures the principality, giving it vassal status.

1073 - 1076

Sviatoslav

1078 - 1093

Vsevolod

1093 - 1113

Sviatopolk II

Son of Izhaslav.

1113

The final unification of the principality is achieved upon the death of Sviatopolk, when his troublesome cousin, Vladimir, is able to secure the throne and end years of on-off internecine conflict.

1113 - 1125

Vladimir II Monomachus

m Gytha, daughter of Harold II of England.

1125 - 1132

Mstislav I

1132 - 1139

Yaropolk

1133 - 1176/77

Kiev again conquers the Estonian country of Tartu and builds it up to become the largest Russian settlement in Ungenois territory.

1139 - 1146

Vsevolod

1142

Volodymyrko Volodarovych gains control of the principality of Halychyna, which eventually becomes one of the strongest Kievan states.

1146

Igor II

1146 - 1149

Izhaslav II

1151 - 1154

Izhaslav II

1154

The Old Russian unified state breaks up into numerous principalities which are constantly arguing and fighting amongst themselves.

1155 - 1157

Yuri I

1167 - 1169

Mstislav II

1170

Mstislav II

1202 - 1205

Roman Mstislavich the Great

Son of Mstislav II.

1199

Roman Mstislavich gains the principality of Halych-Volynia.

Grand Dukes of Vladimir
AD 1154 - 1328

1154 - 1157

Yuri (George) I Dolgoruki

1157 - 1175

Andrey Bogolyubski

1176 - 1212

Ysevolod

1212 - 1218

Konstanin

1218 - 1238

Yuri II

1236 - 1239

Russia is conquered by the Golden Horde Mongols. During the invasion, Kiev is conquered by Danylo Romanovych of Halych-Volynia.

1245 - 1480

The state is tributary to the Mongols.

1238 - 1246

Yaroslav II

1246 - 1253

Andrey

1253 - 1263

Aleksandr Nevksy

1263 - 1272

Taroslav of Tver

1272 - 1276

Basil

1276 - 1293

Demetrius

1293 - 1304

Andrey

1304 - 1318

Michael of Tver

1318 - 1326

Yrui Danilovich of Moscow

1326 - 1328

Alexander of Tver

Grand Dukes of Moscow State
AD 1328 - 1552

1328 - 1341

Ivan I

1341 - 1353

Simeon

1353 - 1359

Ivan II

1359 - 1389

Demetrius Donski

1389 - 1425

Basil I

1425

Moscow is subordinated by the all-powerful Lithuanian state under Great Prince Vytautas.

1425 - 1462

Basil II

1462 - 1505

Ivan III the Great

1477

Novgorod falls to Ivan.

1480

Ivan refuses tribute to the Golden Horde and establishes the independence of Moscow State.

1494

Ivan signs a peace agreement with Stanislovas Janavicius of Samogitia, and marries his daughter, Helen to the Lithuanian elder.

1500 - 1503

Attempting to expand its borders westwards, Moscow begins to attack the grand duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia, and Samogitia from 1500 as it lays claim to the Russian lands within the grand duchy. However, Moscow's efforts are resisted. Also, between 1501-1503, Moscow goes to war against Livonia and the Livonian Knights. Livonians, uniting their forces under the leadership of the Knights, defeat Moscow's army near Lake Smolensk in 1502, and a truce is concluded the following year which lasts until 1558.

1505 - 1533

Basil III

1513 - 1514

Grand Duke Sigismund of Lithuania takes Smolensk and smashes the Moscow army near Orsha the following year.

1533 - 1547

Ivan IV Grozny

Aggressively expanded territory to form the Czarate.

1537

A peace treaty is concluded between Lithuania and Moscow in order to end nearly four decades of warfare between the two countries. However, Lithuanian relations with Moscow remain the most important concern as the Rus state begins to evolve into Russia.

Czarate of all the Russias
AD 1547 - 1613

The Russias were all the lands of the Rus, all those Rus principalities and states which had existed from the ninth century onwards. Ivan the Terrible spent a great deal of his reign fighting the Livonian Wars in an effort to conquer Old Livonia and North Estonia and expand his new empire westwards, but the forces of Sweden, Lithuania, and Poland were able to keep him out, and he died a year after the conclusion of the wars.

1547 - 1584

Ivan IV Grozny the Terrible

First czar of all the Russias.

1547 - 1558

Ivan the Terrible involves the bishop of Dorpat in Livonia in a dispute which becomes the main pretext of the Livonian Wars. Ivan demands that the bishopric pay a huge tribute of 40,000 talers, insisting that city of Dorpat is the ancient Russian fortress of Yuryev, referring to the short term Ruthenian rule of the area after its conquest by Prince Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev between about 1030-1061. Bishop Hermann tries to negotiate a smaller tribute in the interests of extending the truce, but Ivan dismisses the diplomats and assembles his army.

1552 - 1554

Ivan conquers the khanates of Kazan in 1552, and Astrakhan in 1554.

1558 - 1560

In the very first stage of the Livonian Wars in 1558, the city of Dorpat is conquered by Russian troops and the bishopric ceases to exist. The Russians also claim a success when they completely destroy the army of the Livonian Knights at the Battle of Ergeme in 1560, forcing the Order to dissolve itself the following year and submit to Lithuania.

1570s

The fight for the Baltic States is not yet over. In this decade, the Russian army launches a new offensive, and reaches Riga and Tallinn under the command of Ivan the Terrible. He does not manage to capture either town.

1582 - 1583

An armistice agreement is concluded between Ivan and the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom, proclaiming Livonia a possession of the latter. In 1583, Russia concludes a similar agreement with Sweden, acknowledging its supreme power in North Estonia, ending the Livonian Wars.

1584 - 1598

Fedör / Theodore I

Second son.

1598 - 1605

Boris Godunov

Relation by marriage of Ivan IV.

1605

Fedör II

1605 - 1606

Dimitri I the Imposter

1606 - 1610

Basil IV Shuisky

1607 - 1610

Dimitri / Demetrius II

1609 - 1618

Sweden allies itself with Russia, and taking advantage of restless times there, the king of Poland-Lithuania launches a pre-emptive war, capturing Moscow and Smolensk. Resistance by the population of Moscow eventually forces the invading army out, but the war rumbles on until 1618, when an armistice is agreed in the village of Deulino.

1610 - 1612

Wladyislaw / Ladislaus

King of Poland (1632-1648).

1613

There follows an interregnum and a period of civil war.

Romanov Czars of the Russias
AD 1613 - 1917

A period of civil war and interregnum followed the rule of the king of Poland-Lithuania, known by later generations of Russians as the Times of Troubles. Russia remained at war with Poland until 1618.

1613 - 1645

Michael Romanov

1645 - 1676

Aleksei / Alexis

1652

The reforms of Aleksei and Patriarch Nikon to Russian Orthodox ritual and worshipping causes a section of the Church's congregation to secede during the Great Schism. Many 'Old Believers' who refuse to follow the new practises migrate westwards, to the shores of Lake Peipsi in Estonia to form small fishing communities which continue to trade at St Petersburg. Others are killed in their thousands, or commit suicide by setting themselves alight rather than obey the czar's reforms.

1676 - 1682

Fedör III

1682 - 1689

Ivan V

1682 - 1725

Peter I the Great

Son.

1682 - 1689

Ivan and Peter both accede to the throne (where in fact a two-seater throne is made for them). While nominally czars, Sofia, their sister, in fact governs the country. In 1689 Peter deposes her and establishes his own rule.

1709 - 1710

Peter the Great defeats and effectively destroys the Swedish empire at Poltava, Ukraine in 1709, during the Great Northern War. The following year, the Russian empire gains control of Estonia.

1721

The Great Northern War is ended with the Treaty of Nystad by which time Russia has already gained much influence in the duchy of Courland with the marriage of Princess Anna Ivanova (later empress in 1730) to the ruling duke. Both that and Livonia are confirmed as Russian possessions.

1725 - 1727

Catherine I

Wife.

1727 - 1730

Peter II

1730 - 1740

Anna

1737

Anna Ivanova, upon her accession to the throne, places her own candidate in charge of the duchy of Courland.

1740 - 1741

Ivan VI

1741 - 1762

Elizabeth Petrovna

1762

Peter III

1762 - 1796

Catherine II the Great

1762

Livonia is administered directly by the governor-general of the Baltic Provinces, Count George Browne. Estonia follows suit in 1775.

1767

After this date, all of Alania falls under the rule of the Russian empire. The peoples are generally converted to the Russian Orthodox church and in terms of identity they form the Ossetians, based in modern Georgia and the bordering Russian republics.

1772

Russia shares the spoils during the First Partition of Poland-Lithuania, gaining Polish Livonia (Latgallia) and Lithuania.

1774

Georgia joins the Russian empire as a client kingdom.

1783

Russia annexes the khanate of Crimea.

1793 - 1795

In 1793, Russia gains gains Podolia, Volynia, and more of Lithuania during the Second Partition of Poland-Lithuania. Two years later, the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania sees Russia gain almost all of modern Belarus, ending the existence of the joint states, as well as terminating the duchies of Courland and Samogitia. Governors are installed in Lithuania.

1796 - 1801

Paul I

Killed in palace coup.

1799 - 1800

The Second Coalition is formed by Austria and Russia against France. It ends in Austrian defeat at the Battle of Marengo, which eventually secures the French client republics in the Netherlands and Italy.

1801 - 1825

Alexander I

Son of Paul I. Implicated in coup. First grand duke of Finland.

1801

Kartli-Kakheti in Georgia is annexed into the Russian empire.

1804

Imeretia in Georgia accepts a Russian protectorate.

1805

The Third Coalition is formed against France, so in a swift campaign, Napoleon marches east, occupies the Austrian capital of Vienna, and defeats large armies of Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. The coalition lays in ruins.

1806

The principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia are taken from the Ottomans.

1807

France defeats the Austrians and Russians at Freidland in 1807.

1809

Alexander captures Finland from Sweden and creates an autonomic grand duchy, of which he is the titular head.

1810

Imeretia in Georgia is conquered and abolished by the Russian empire in violation of its own protectorate treaty.

1812 - 1813

Incensed by Russia's refusal to join his blockade of Britain, Napoleon invades with one of the largest armies Europe has ever seen. Courland is captured, and Lithuania is occupied, and the French advance to Moscow. However, frustrated by the Russian policy of using the vast space of the country to defeat him, and perhaps unnerved by being ignored after his capture of Moscow, he is forced to retreat to Germany. In early 1813, Europe's armies mobilise against him, and a victory at Leipzig pushes the French back within their own borders.

1815

The Polish lands which had been under Russian control prior to the wars are formally regained, with the territory being formed into the Polish Kingdom in subordinate union with Russia, as established by the Congress of Vienna. The czar remains head of state.

1825 - 1855

Nicholas I

1828 - 1829

The Russo-Turkish War, triggered by the fighting in Greece and the Danubian principalities, ends in the Peace of Adrianople.

1854 - 1856

Britain and France join the Ottoman empire in the Crimean War against Russia, to halt Russian expansion. The war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, a severe setback to Russian ambitions.

1855 - 1881

Alexander II

1866 - 1867

An uprising in Georgia is put down. The following year, the United States senate purchases Alaska from Russia for just US$7.2 million.

1873

Russia establishes a fixed boundary between Afghanistan and its new territories (Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samarkand (all of which go into forming Uzbekistan in 1924), promising to respect Afghanistan's territorial integrity.

1881 - 1894

Alexander III

1894 - 1917

Nicholas II

Son. Last de facto Czar.

1905

Russian troops fire on protestors in St Petersburg (an event dubbed 'Bloody Sunday'), sparking the 1905 Russian Revolution.

1914

Russia supports its allies by joining the First World War against Imperial Germany and Austria. However, the Russian army advancing into Eastern Europe is routed by the Germans at the Battle of Tannenberg, and loses Russian Poland.

1916

On the Eastern Front, Russian defeats bring the Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, under German Imperial control, much to the relief of the German-descended land-owning aristocracy

1917

The February Revolution begins with riots in Petrograd over food rations and the conduct of the First World War against the German empire, and it ends with the creation of a Bolshevik Russian republic. Nicholas II abdicates, first in favour of his son, Alexei, and then in favour of his brother, Michael. The act effectively ends a thousand years of imperial rule. Mismanaging their rule and badly handling the war effort, the Bolsheviks start to lose control of some of Russia's imperial dominions, and the country slides into civil war.

1917

Alexei

Son. Provisional czar for eight hours.

1917

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich

Second son of Alexander II. Executed 1918.

1917 - 1918

Grand Duke Michael, pronounced Michael II by his brother, defers ascending the throne until his rule can be ratified. Instead, and under pressure, he authorises the Provisional Government to rule. His uncrowned reign ends when he is executed the following year.

Modern Russia
AD 1917 - Present Day

The October revolution which replaced the unstable republican government created a communist state. However, the Bolsheviks swept away the old administrative order in favour of regional 'soviets'. The new government, far from stable itself, also handled what remained of Russia's First World War effort badly, holding out for a beneficial peace agreement with Germany and being forced instead to accept the harsh terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. As a result of that and far too many reforms in too short a period, Russia began losing control over many of its outlying states and provinces, especially those which had been handed over to Germany under the terms of the treaty, such as Belarus, Bessarabia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Russian Poland, and western Ukraine, plus the Crimea, the industrial Donetz basin, and, on 8 May 1918, the Don. It took the collapse of Imperial Germany and three long years of civil war before the Russian empire could be reborn under Soviet control.

While the claim of Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich Romanov to be the rightful heir to Czar Nicholas II was not in dispute, since his death in 1992, the divided branches of the Romanov house have put forward their own claimant to be the heir to the throne of the Russias. Prince Nicholas Romanovich is recognised by most of the family, bearing direct descent from the uncrowned 'successor' to Nicholas II, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. Meanwhile, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir, holds to her claim because her father issued a controversial decree recognising her as his successor. Before that, the claim by Anna Anderson that she was one of Czar Nicholas' daughters was proved false, but as she could not claim the throne while a valid male heir still lived, she was not actually a pretender.

Successors of the last czar are shown with a shaded background. Pretenders and other disqualified claimants are shown in green text.

1918

Liberalist and monarchist White Guard Russian forces resist the imposition of a Bolshevik state, and fight a civil war against the Red Guard communist forces. With White Guard forces closing in on the location where the czar and his family are imprisoned in 1918, communist soldiers murder the entire immediate imperial family and destroy the bodies. While Russia is preoccupied, Rumania gains the principality of Transylvania from Hungary, as well as some territory from Russia itself.

1918 - 1984

Anastasia / Anna Anderson

Born 22 Dec 1896. Claimed to be youngest dau of Czar Nicholas.

1918 - 1924

The title of czar of all the Russias is vacant until an heir is selected in 1924. Anastasia claims to be the only survivor of the 1917 massacre, and she bears all of the physical similarities and internal palace knowledge necessary to convince many that her claim is true. However, her claim is never accepted by the surviving senior members of the Romanov family in Europe and America, and cannot be confirmed legally. Some critics point to a Polish peasant girl who had gone missing at the same time as Anastasia had appeared and claim a hoax. Anastasia's own admission in her last years, and DNA testing, confirms that she was indeed the missing Polish girl.

1918 - 1919

During the Russian Civil War, the Ossetians form part of the Transcaucasian republic in 1918-1919, before forming one of several pockets of White Guard/Republican resistance against Moscow until 1920.

1920 - 1921

The Russian Civil War comes to an end with the Bolshevik forces victorious against the piecemeal attempts at resistance. The main threat had been Admiral Kolchak's anti-Bolshevik forces in Siberia, which assembled through Czech intervention after interference by the Bolsheviks themselves. Russia and Turkey establish their respective borders with one another and the remaining independent Armenian lands fall under Russian control. Russia also invades and re-conquers Georgia, and the Russo-Polish War results in the partitioning of Belarus between the Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic and Poland.

1924 - 1938

Grand Duke Cyril

Grandson of Alexander II by his third son. Born 12 Oct 1876.

1938 - 1992

Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich

Son of Cyril. Born 30 Aug 1917. Died of natural causes 21 Apr.

1939 - 1940

As part of the wider conflict of the Second World War, Finland fights the Winter War against Soviet Russia following a Russian attack.

1941 - 1942

The Continuation War is, as the name suggests, a continuation of the fighting of 1940. The Finns halt the Russian advance into Finland before agreeing peace terms.

1945 - 1949

Germany is occupied by the forces of Soviet Russia, the United States, Britain and France until 1949. From 1945 until 1989-1991, the Soviet dictatorship establishes satellite states in occupied Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Rumania. The northern section of former East Prussia is annexed directly to the state as Kaliningrad.

1953

The Soviet Union begins supplying economic and military aid to Afghanistan.

1962

One immediate result of the Cuban-Soviet alliance of 1959 is the placement of ballistic missiles on Cuba, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USA 'blockades' Cuba, and only a last-minute climb-down by the Soviets avoids the spectre of nuclear war.

1979

Soviet troops are sent into Afghanistan as civil war erupts there. They spend the next decade locked in an unwinnable war against guerrilla Mujahideen forces.

1991

On Christmas Day Communist USSR President Gorbachev announces the termination of the Soviet Communist State. The Soviet Republics become independent sovereign states (if they had not already become so since 1989), including Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Ossetia, Poland, Rumania, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Many of those lying further east elect to join the new Confederation of Independent States - still strongly controlled from Moscow. Cuba, a staunch Soviet ally, suffers badly from the fall of its only supplier of oil and many major foodstuffs.

1992 - Present

Prince Nicholas Romanovich

Son of Prince Roman Romanov. Born 26 Sep 1922.

1992 - Present

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

Daughter of Vladimir. Born 23 Dec 1953. Pretender.

2008

Partially fooled by Russia into commencing an attack on South Ossetia to recover the breakaway territory, Georgia is humiliated as a pre-prepared Russian taskforce crushes its forces and occupies South Ossetia under the pretence of protecting Russian passport holders there. Russia soon recognises South Ossetia (and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region) as independent states.