1. Russian Czars Increase Power

2. From Ivan to the Romanovs

3. Ivan III had made Moscow the center of a new Russian state with a central government.

4. In 1480 Ivan refused to pay the customary tribute to the grand Khan Ahmed.

5. His son, Vasily, continued the work of adding territory to the growing Russian state. He died from a boil and inflammation on his leg which developed into blood poisoning.

6. Ivan's grandson, Ivan IV (reign 1533 – 1584 C.E.), was called Ivan the Terrible. He came to the throne in 1533, when he was three years old because of the death of his father.

7. When Ivan turned 16, he seized power, and named himself Czar. Czar means Caesar. Ivan was the first Russian to call himself this officially.

8. At first, landowning nobles, known as boyars, tried to control Ivan. Eventually, he ruled successfully on his own.

9. During his “Good Period” Ivan ruled justly, added lands to Russia and gave the country a code of laws.

10. After Ivan IV’s wife, Anastasia, died, however, his rule turned harsh.

11. During his “Bad Period” Ivan used secret police (Oprichnina) to hunt down enemies (Boyars) and kill them.

12. Under Ivan IV, the policy was established that the Russian nobility could retain their lands and titles only if they served the state Those few boyar families that survived his reign of terror, and the newly created aristocrats, were all required to serve the state as civil servants, bureaucrats, and in particular were required to perform military service, staffing the officer corps. From: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/distance/hist/muscovy.htm

13. Ivan even murdered his oldest son after an argument.

14. Ivan IV of Russia ("Ivan the Terrible") demonstrates his treasures to the ambassador of Queen Elizabeth I of England

15. A few years after Ivan died, Russian nobles met to name a new ruler. Ivan’s second son was not capable of being the country’s leader. They chose Michael Romanov, the great nephew of Ivan the Terrible’s wife.

16. He began the Romanov dynasty that ruled Russia for about 300 years.

17. Peter the Great Takes the Throne

18. The Romanovs restored order to Russia. In the late 1600s, Peter I came to power. He was called Peter the Great because he was one of Russia's greatest reformers. He was also one of the tallest, as he stood 6’8”.

19. He began an intense program of trying to modernize Russia. He also continued the trend of increasing the czar's power.

20. When Peter came to power, Russia was still a land of boyars and serfs. Serfdom lasted much longer in Russia than it did in western Europe. It continued into the mid-1800s.

21. When a Russian landowner sold a piece of land, he sold the serfs with it. Landowners could give serfs away as presents or to pay debts. It was also against the law for serfs to run away from their owners.

22. Most boyars knew little of western Europe. But Peter admired the nations of western Europe.

23. Peter the Great traveled in Europe to learn about new technology and ways of working. Peter visited Brandenburg, Holland, England, and the Holy Roman Empire during his so-called Grand Embassy.

24. It was the first time a czar traveled in the West. He returned to Russia determined to make his country more advanced.

25. Peter Rules Absolutely

26. Peter the Great wanted Russia to be the equal of the countries of western Europe. He wanted Russia to be strong both in its military and in its trade.

27. To meet these goals, Peter changed Russia. His first steps were to increase the powers of the czar, or ruler, so he could force people to make the changes he wanted.

28. He put the Russian Orthodox Church under his control. He reduced the power of nobles. He built up the army and made it better trained.

29. Peter also changed Russia through westernization. He took several steps to make Russia more western. He brought in potatoes as a new food, began Russia's first newspaper, gave more social status to women, and told the nobles to adopt western clothes.

30. He also promoted education. he issued a decree on compulsory education, which dictated that all Russian 10- to 15- year-old children of the nobility, government clerks, and even lesser ranked officials, must learn basic mathematics and geometry, and should be tested on it at the end of their studies.

31. Peter also knew Russia needed a seaport that would make it easier to travel to the west. He fought a long war with Sweden to gain land along the shores of the Baltic Sea.

32. There Peter the Great built a grand new capital city, St. Petersburg. By the time of his death in 1725, Russia was an important power in Europe.

33. Peter put forth a new law that stated the tsar would choose his own successor, but he failed to do so before his death in 1725. From: http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11348.html

34. In the decades that followed, the absence of clear rules of succession left the monarchy open to intrigues, plots, coups, and countercoups.