The Early Romanovs: 1613-1682
The first Romanov tsars ruled Russia from 1613 to 1682, the period between the end of the Time of Troubles and the accession of Peter the Great. The early Romanovs faced the enormous task of restoring order and legitimacy to the Russian throne after the chaos of the Time of Troubles, and they succeeded in reestablishing the autocratic state and laying the foundations for the imperial expansion that would follow. The period also saw the consolidation of serfdom, the conquest of Siberia, the rise of the Russian Orthodox Church as a state institution, and the beginnings of the cultural engagement with Western Europe that would intensify under Peter the Great.
The first Romanovs are often overlooked in favor of the more dramatic figures of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, but their reign was a critical period in Russian history. They established the dynasty that would rule Russia until 1917, and they created many of the institutions and practices that would define the Russian imperial system.
Michael I and the end of the Time of Troubles
The first Romanov tsar was Michael I, who was elected by a national assembly in February 1613 at the age of sixteen. The election of Michael was a turning point in Russian history, marking the end of the Time of Troubles and the beginning of three centuries of Romanov rule. Michael’s father, Filaret, was the metropolitan of Rostov and was elected as patriarch of Moscow in 1619, giving the new dynasty a powerful religious and political connection.
Michael’s reign was dominated by the effort to restore order and rebuild the country after the devastation of the Time of Troubles. The economy was in ruins, the population had been drastically reduced, and the social fabric had been torn apart by foreign intervention, civil war, and peasant rebellion. The new government faced a series of challenges, including continued Polish and Swedish intervention, Cossack and peasant unrest, and the need to rebuild the military and the administration.
The most important event of Michael’s reign was the conclusion of peace with Poland and Sweden. In 1617, the Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden ended Swedish intervention and recovered Novgorod and other Russian territories. In 1618, the Truce of Deulino with Poland brought an end to the fighting, although Smolensk and the Chernihiv region remained in Polish hands, and the Polish prince Władysław maintained his claim to the Russian throne until the Treaty of Polyanovka in 1634. The peace was not fully satisfactory, and the early Romanovs would continue to seek to recover the lost territories, but it did provide a basis for the recovery of the Russian state.
Alexis and the consolidation of the Romanov state
Michael died in 1645 and was succeeded by his son Alexis, who ruled until 1676. Alexis’s reign was marked by the consolidation of the autocratic state, the recovery of lost territories, and the important religious and cultural developments that would shape the late seventeenth century.
The most important political development of Alexis’s reign was the recovery of the territories lost to Poland in the Time of Troubles. In 1653, the Zemsky Sobor decided to take the Cossacks and the Orthodox population of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the tsar’s protection, and the Cossacks swore their oath of allegiance at the Pereyaslav Council in 1654, leading to the Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667. The war ended with the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, by which Russia recovered Smolensk and the eastern Ukraine, including the city of Kiev. The recovery of Kiev was particularly important, since Kiev was the historical center of the Kievan Rus and the cradle of Russian Christianity.
Alexis’s reign was also marked by the development of a legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, which codified the existing Russian law, including the rules of serfdom. The code was one of the most important legal documents of the early modern period, and it would remain the basis of Russian law until the reforms of the nineteenth century. The code also defined the legal status of the various social estates, binding the townspeople to their towns as it bound the peasants to the land, and strengthened the position of the autocratic state.
The most important religious and cultural development of Alexis’s reign was the Raskol, the schism of the Old Believers. In 1653, Patriarch Nikon launched a sweeping reform of Russian Orthodox liturgical practices to bring them into closer alignment with contemporary Greek Orthodox practice. The reforms included changes to the sign of the cross, the spelling of “Jesus,” and other practices, but they were seen by traditionalist Russian Orthodox as a betrayal of the true Russian faith. The opponents of Nikon’s reforms, called Old Believers, refused to accept the new practices and were subjected to severe persecution by the state.
The Raskol was an important event in Russian religious and cultural history. It created a deep division within Russian Orthodoxy that would persist for centuries, and it produced a rich tradition of Old Believer literature, iconography, and community life. The Old Believers were also important in the development of Russian commerce and industry, especially in the Volga region and Moscow, where they became known for their trading and manufacturing activities.
Fyodor III and the succession crisis
Alexis died in 1676 and was succeeded by his son Fyodor III, who ruled from 1676 to 1682. Fyodor was a sickly and short-lived ruler, but he is remembered for the cultural and military reforms he pursued during his short reign. He is particularly remembered for the abolition of mestnichestvo, the system of aristocratic precedence in state appointments, in 1682, for the initiative that led to the founding of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, and for the military campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate.
Fyodor’s death in 1682 led to a succession crisis. He left no surviving children, and the question of who would succeed him became entangled with the rivalry between the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin families. The crisis was eventually resolved by the joint accession of Fyodor’s younger brothers, Ivan and Peter, with their elder sister Sophia acting as regent. Sophia ruled as regent from 1682 to 1689, when Peter, who had been gradually assuming power, deposed her in a coup and took full control of the government.
The succession crisis was important for several reasons. It established the principle that the Romanov dynasty would continue to rule, and it created the conditions for the dramatic reign of Peter the Great, who would transform the Russian state. The crisis also revealed the political tensions within the Romanov family and the broader Russian elite, and it established a pattern of palace coups and political intrigue that would continue throughout the imperial period.
The expansion of Russia under the early Romanovs
The early Romanovs presided over a period of significant territorial expansion. The most important was the conquest of Siberia, which had begun under Ivan the Terrible and continued under the Romanovs. Russian explorers, trappers, and soldiers pushed eastward across Siberia, reaching the Pacific Ocean by the late 1630s and establishing fortified outposts that would become major cities, including Tobolsk, Yakutsk, and Okhotsk.
The early Romanovs also pursued expansion in the west. The recovery of Smolensk and the eastern Ukraine from Poland was an important achievement, and the integration of the Ukrainian Cossacks and Orthodox population into the Russian state was an important development. The early Romanovs also began the long struggle with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, although with limited success in this period.
The expansion of Russia under the early Romanovs was driven by a combination of factors, including the search for furs and other natural resources, the desire for security on the open steppe, and the ideology of Orthodox Christianity and the “Third Rome.” The expansion brought large new territories and populations under Russian rule, and it laid the foundations for the imperial system that would develop under Peter the Great.
The consolidation of serfdom
The early Romanovs presided over a transformation of the Russian peasantry, the so-called “second serfdom” of the seventeenth century. The period saw the gradual elimination of the remaining free peasants and the consolidation of the system of serfdom, which would persist until 1861. The process was driven by several factors, including the state’s need for a stable tax base, the landlords’ desire for labor, and the need to prevent peasant flight from the central regions to the new territories of the south and the east.
The most important legal document in this process was the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, which formalized the system of serfdom and made the position of the serfs essentially permanent. The code also restricted the movement of peasants and gave the landlords extensive powers over their serfs, including the power of corporal punishment.
The consolidation of serfdom had an impact on Russian social and economic development. It provided the labor for the great estates of the nobility and the large state projects, but it also created a deep social division between the small privileged class of serf-owners and the vast mass of unfree peasants. The system was economically inefficient and morally indefensible, and it would remain a problem for the Russian state for the next two centuries.
The early Romanovs and Western Europe
The early Romanovs had a more complex relationship with Western Europe than is sometimes recognized. The period saw the establishment of regular diplomatic relations with the principal European powers, including England, France, the Dutch Republic, and the Holy Roman Empire, and Russian embassies were established in the principal European capitals. The period also saw the growing influence of Western ideas and practices in Russia, including in the military, the government, and the church.
The early Romanovs were also involved in important European political events, including the Thirty Years. War (1618-1648), in which Russia played a limited but significant role. The Russian government supported the anti-Habsburg coalition indirectly, providing subsidies in the form of cheap grain sales to Sweden and Denmark, and the Smolensk War of 1632-1634 against Poland was fought in loose coordination with the anti-Habsburg powers, although no Russian troops fought in the Thirty Years’ War itself. The period also saw the development of significant trade with Western Europe, especially through the port of Arkhangelsk, which was the main Russian outlet to the sea.
The growing engagement with Western Europe would reach its climax under Peter the Great, who would transform Russia into a European power and create a new Westernized elite. The work of the early Romanovs in establishing regular diplomatic relations and developing the Russian state’s engagement with Europe was an important foundation for this later transformation.
Legacy of the early Romanovs
The early Romanovs established the dynasty that would rule Russia until 1917, and they created many of the institutions and practices that would define the Russian imperial system. The autocratic system, the close relationship between Church and state, the system of serfdom, the policy of territorial expansion, and the engagement with Western Europe all had their origins in this period.
The legacy of the early Romanovs is complex. The dynasty brought stability and order to Russia after the Time of Troubles, and it presided over a period of territorial expansion and cultural development. At the same time, the consolidation of serfdom and the religious schism created lasting problems that would shape Russian history for centuries. The early Romanovs set the stage for the dramatic transformation of Peter the Great, but they also established many of the patterns of autocratic rule that would persist until the empire’s fall in 1917.