Popular Science: An introduction to the three most famous tsars in the history of Russia

The most terrifying and cruel tsar - Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV the Terrible, also known as Ivan IV Vasilyevich, the son of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaia, was the first tsar in Russian history.

He became famous not because he was the first tsar in the history of Russia, but because of his title of "Thunder Emperor".

Ivan the Terrible, who inherited the Grand Duke of Moscow and All Russia at the age of three, was known as Ivan IV, but he was fierce and suspicious, arbitrary and cruel, so he was named "Terrible".

When he was a child, he often killed the birds he caught, or stood on a high wall and threw the puppy in his hand to death, so as to vent his dissatisfaction. And when he was 13 years old, he released the vicious dog he raised, and killed his imperial uncle Issky, who was in charge of the government, and died at the gate of the palace. And when he just ascended the throne, in order to strengthen the imperial power, he implemented a policy of terror throughout the country, punished the great nobles who opposed the imperial power, and inevitably killed many innocent civilians, and executed tens of thousands of people with torture such as sharp pile punishment, cannon burning, digging people's hearts alive, cramping and disembowelment, etc., and got the title of "Thunder Emperor", which means "Tsar Ivan the Terror".

In his later years, the lonely Ivan the Terrible became more perverse and moody, he was always suspicious, and always felt that someone was trying to harm him. However, he still doted on his eldest son, the future heir to the throne, Ivan, and often let him follow him, so to speak, he no longer trusted anyone except this son. However, the crown prince died in front of Ivan the Terrible, and staged a tragedy of "white-haired people sending black-haired people".

There are different theories about the cause of Prince Ivan's death, the most common of which is that from 1581 onwards, Ivan the Terrible began to suspect that the crown prince was suspected of seizing the throne, and his suspicious personality made this idea more and more intense, and the relationship between father and son was strained by his vigilance. One day, Ivan the Terrible saw Ivan's wife, Yelena, walking around the palace wearing only a thin dress, contrary to the custom of Russian women at the time to wear at least three dresses. Ivan the Terrible was furious and beat his daughter-in-law, causing Yelena, who was already pregnant, to miscarry due to fright.

When Ivan heard the news, he yelled at Ivan the Terrible, and Ivan the Terrible was also angry, and while yelling "you shameful traitor", he raised the iron-headed scepter in his hand and stabbed at his son. In his later years, Ivan the Terrible often held an iron staff in his hand, which was a long wooden staff with an iron cone tip wrapped around the tip and a pattern engraved on the handle. Once Ivan IV was angry, he would use this iron-tipped wooden staff to stab at the other party at any time, so as long as the people in the palace heard the sound of the wooden staff hitting the ground, they would be so frightened that they quickly hid. But I didn't expect that at that time, Ivan the Terrible's iron rod happened to pierce his son Ivan's temple, and then there was the tragic scene of Repin's "Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son", and finally Ivan died of his injuries.

What made Russia a Western power - Peter the Great

Peter I Alekseevich, later generations honored him as "Peter the Great".

Peter was a burly, energetic, and rough man, in contrast to the sickness of his Romanov predecessors. In 1682, Peter's half-brother Fedor III died. In the fierce competition between his sister Sofia and the Migslav family and the Naryshkin family, 10-year-old Peter and his brother Ivan V, who suffered from scurvy and could not govern, became the tsar, and Peter was only the second tsar, and the real power was in the hands of Princess Sofia.

Two of his hobbies as a child had an important impact on the future: a strong interest in navigation and shipbuilding, which led him to develop a national policy towards the sea and build a strong navy, and the other was to play military games, and his two junior game regiments later evolved into two of his most effective guards. In 1689, it was with these two legions that Peter crushed the plot of his sister Sofia to depose him, and locked Sofia in the monastery, effectively taking power. In 1696 Ivan V died, and Peter became the sole tsar.

"Give me 20 years and give you back a miraculous Russia. I'm not angry! Never get angry! What Russia needs most is the sea. —Peter I

As early as during his expedition to Western Europe, Peter formed an anti-Swedish alliance with Denmark and Saxony. In 1700, the three kingdoms united and declared war on Sweden. But at the beginning of the war, Sweden forced Denmark to withdraw with lightning speed, and then defeated the Russians at Narva. However, Peter the Great could not admit defeat, and after reforming and gaining strength, he regrouped and defeated the Swedish warlike king Karl XII at the Battle of Lesnaya in 1708 and the Battle of Poltava in 1709, especially in the Battle of Poltava, Peter personally went to the front and dealt a devastating blow to the Swiss army. In 1721, the Russian-Swedish Treaty of Nestad was signed, and Russia seized the coveted large areas of land on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland, and the Gulf of Riga, thus gaining access to the sea. Peter the Great's prestige reached its peak. St. Petersburg was founded under Peter the Great.

The only female tsar in Russian history known as the Great - Catherine II

Catherine II Alekseevna, Empress of the Russian Empire, standard Chinese translation as Catherine the Great, is also the only female tsar in Russian history known as the Great.

In the history of the Russian Empire, only two emperors received the title of "Great": one was Peter I, the founder of the empire, and the other was Catherine II. Catherine II's reign lasted almost 35 years, and Russia was the scene of her activities throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. In the Catherine era, Russia entered the ranks of the world's great powers and became known as the "gendarme of Europe" for its active intervention in European affairs. Russia's strength in the nineteenth century owes much to the foundations laid in the Catherine era. His successors, including Catherine's son Paul I and grandson Alexander I, and the six subsequent emperors, including Alexander II, Nicholas I, Alexander III, and the last Tsar Nicholas II, were unsurpassed in their statecraft.

Catherine II introduced a series of reforms that strengthened state power and brought serfdom to the pinnacle of development. During her reign, Russia's territory expanded dramatically, and its main achievements in this area were the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea coast, as well as Russia's participation in the partition of Poland and two wars against Turkey, both of which ended in brilliant victories. During this period, Russia expanded greatly in the south, and Tsarist power crossed the Caucasus Mountains.

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