The Obituary
The Russian Empire was proclaimed in 1721 when Peter the Great, fresh from defeating Sweden, declared himself emperor and turned his realm toward Europe. Over two centuries the Romanovs expanded across Siberia to the Pacific and into Central Asia, building the largest contiguous empire of its time and a court of legendary opulence. But the empire modernized slowly and ruled harshly, and the strains of the First World War proved fatal. Military defeats, food shortages, and mass discontent erupted in the February Revolution of 1917, forcing Nicholas II to abdicate. Within months the Bolsheviks seized power, and the imperial family was executed in 1918.
Worth remembering
- By 1914 it covered about 22.8 million square kilometres, roughly a sixth of the world's land area.
- It abolished serfdom only in 1861, freeing some 23 million peasants under Alexander II.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.