APWH CH 21 - Rise of Russia

Ivan III (the Great)

Prince of the Duchy of Moscow; responsible for freeing Russia from the Mongols; took the title of tsar (caesar).

Ivan IV (the Terrible)

confirmed power of tsarist autocracy by attacking the authority of the boyars; continued policy of expansion; established contacts with western European commerce and culture.

Cossacks

peasant-adventurers with agricultural and military skills, recruited to conquer and settle in newly seized lands in southern Russia and Siberia.

Time of Troubles

early 17th-century period of boyar efforts to regain power and foreign invasion following the death of Ivan IV, who died without an heir; ended with the selection of Michael Romanov as tsar in 1613.

Romanov dynasty

ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917.

Alexis Romanov

Second Romanov ruler; abolished assemblies of nobles; gained new powers over the Orthodox church.

Old Believers

conservative Russians who refused to accept the ecclesiastical reforms of Alexis Romanov; many were exiled to southern Russia or Siberia.

Peter I (the Great)

tsar from 1689 to 1725; continued growth of absolutism and conquest; sought to change selected aspects of the economy and culture through imitation of western European models.

Catherine the Great

German-born Russian tsarina; combined selective receptivity to Enlightenment ideas with strong centralizing policies; converted the nobility to a service aristocracy by granting them new power over the peasantry.

Pugachev rebellion

unsuccessful peasant uprising led by cossack Emelyan Pugachev during the 1770s; typical of peasant unrest during the 18th century and thereafter.

partition of Poland

three separate divisions of Polish territory between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772, 1793, and 1795; eliminated Poland as an independent state.