Romanovs.
There are two main versions of the origin of the Romanov family. According to one they come from Prussia, according to the other from Novgorod. Under Ivan IV (the Terrible), the family was close to the royal throne and had a certain political influence. The surname Romanov was first adopted by Patriarch Filaret (Fyodor Nikitich).
Tsars and emperors of the Romanov dynasty.
Mikhail Fedorovich (1596-1645).
Years of government - 1613-1645.
The son of Patriarch Philaret and Xenia Ivanovna Shestova (after the tonsure, nun Martha). On February 21, 1613, sixteen-year-old Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar by the Zemsky Sobor, and on July 11 of the same year he was married to the kingdom. Was married twice. He had three daughters and a son - the heir to the throne Alexei Mikhailovich.
The reign of Mikhail Fedorovich was marked by rapid construction in large cities, the development of Siberia and the development of technical progress.
Alexei Mikhailovich (Quiet) (1629-1676)
Years of government - 1645-1676
The reign of Alexei Mikhailovich was noted:
- church reform (in other words, a split in the church)
- peasant war led by Stepan Razin
- reunification of Russia and Ukraine
- a number of riots: "Salt", "Copper"
Was married twice. His first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, bore him 13 children, including the future tsars Fedor and Ivan, and Princess Sophia. Second wife Natalya Naryshkina - 3 children, including the future Emperor Peter I.
Before his death, Alexei Mikhailovich blessed his son from his first marriage, Fedor, to the kingdom.
Fedor III (Fyodor Alekseevich) (1661-1682)
Years of government - 1676-1682
Under Feodor III, a census was conducted and the cutting off of hands for theft was abolished. Orphanages began to be built. The Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was established, with admission to study in it for representatives of all classes.
Was married twice. There were no children. He did not appoint heirs before his death.
Ivan V (Ivan Alekseevich) (1666-1696)
Years of government - 1682-1696
He took over the reign after the death of his brother Fedor by the right of seniority.
He was very painful and incapable of governing the country. The boyars and the patriarch decided to depose Ivan V and declare the underage Peter Alekseevich (future Peter I) the king. Relatives from both heirs fought desperately for power. The result was a bloody Streltsy rebellion. As a result, it was decided to crown both of them, which happened on June 25, 1682. Ivan V was a nominal tsar and never engaged in public affairs. In reality, the country was ruled first by Princess Sophia, and then by Peter I.
He was married to Praskovya Saltykova. They had five daughters, including the future Empress Anna Ioannovna.
Princess Sofya (Sofya Alekseevna) (1657-1704)
Years of government - 1682-1689
Under Sophia, the persecution of the Old Believers was intensified. Her favorite Prince Golits undertook two unsuccessful campaigns against the Crimea. As a result of the coup in 1689, Peter I came to power. Sophia was forcibly tonsured a nun and died in the Novodevichy Convent.
Peter I (Peter Alekseevich) (1672-1725)
Years of government - 1682-1725
He was the first to take the title of emperor. When there were many global changes in the state:
- the capital was moved to the newly built city of St. Petersburg.
- the Russian navy was founded
- carried out a lot of successful military campaigns, including the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava
- another church reform was carried out, the Holy Synod was established, the institution of the patriarch was abolished, the church was deprived of its own funds
- the Senate was established
The emperor was married twice. The first wife is Evdokia Lopukhina. The second is Marta Skavronskaya.
Three children of Peter survived to adulthood: Tsarevich Alesya and daughters Elizabeth and Anna.
Tsarevich Alexei was considered the heir, but was accused of high treason and died under torture. According to one version, he was tortured to death by his own father.
Catherine I (Marta Skavronskaya) (1684-1727)
Years of government - 1725-1727
After the death of her crowned husband, she took his throne. The most significant event of her reign was the opening of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Peter II (Peter Alekseevich) (1715-1730)
Years of government - 1727-1730
Grandson of Peter I, son of Tsarevich Alexei.
He ascended the throne quite young and was not involved in public affairs. He was passionate about hunting.
Anna Ioannovna (1693-1740)
Years of government - 1730-1740
Daughter of Tsar Ivan V, niece of Peter I.
Since there were no heirs after Peter II, the members of the Privy Council decided the issue with the throne. They chose Anna Ioannovna, forcing her to sign a document limiting royal power. Subsequently, she tore the document, and the members of the Privy Council were either executed or sent into exile.
Anna Ioannovna declared the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna, Ivan Antonovich, her heir.
Ivan VI (Ivan Antonovich) (1740-1764)
Years of government - 1740-1741
Great-grandson of Tsar Ivan V, nephew of Anna Ioannovna.
First, under the young emperor, the favorite of Anna Ioannovna Biron was regent, then his mother Anna Leopoldovna. After the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna, the emperor and his family spent the rest of their days in captivity.
Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-1761)
Years of government - 1741-1761
Daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. The last ruler of the state, who is a direct descendant of the Romanovs. She ascended the throne as a result of a coup d'état. All her life she patronized the arts and science.
She declared her nephew Peter to be her heir.
Peter III (1728-1762)
Years of government - 1761-1762
Grandson of Peter I, son of his eldest daughter Anna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich.
During his short reign, he managed to sign a decree on equality of religions and the Manifesto of the Liberty of the Nobility. He was killed by a group of conspirators.
He was married to Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica (future Empress Catherine II). He had a son, Pavel, who would later take the Russian throne.
Catherine II (née Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica) (1729-1796)
Years of government - 1762-1796
She became empress after the coup d'état and the assassination of Peter III.
The reign of Catherine is called the golden age. Russia conducted a lot of successful military campaigns and gained new territories. Science and art developed.
Pavel I (1754-1801)
Years of government - 1796-1801
Son of Peter III and Catherine II.
He was married to the princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, at baptism Natalya Alekseevna. They had ten children. Two of whom later became emperors.
Killed by conspirators.
Alexander I (Alexander Pavlovich) (1777-1825)
Reign 1801-1825
Son of Emperor Paul I.
After the coup and the murder of his father, he ascended the throne.
Defeated Napoleon.
He had no heirs.
A legend is connected with him that he did not die in 1825, but became a wandering monk and ended his days in one of the monasteries.
Nicholas I (Nikolai Pavlovich) (1796-1855)
Years of government - 1825-1855
Son of Emperor Paul I, brother of Emperor Alexander I
Under him, the Decembrist Uprising took place.
He was married to the Prussian princess Friederika Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina. The couple had 7 children.
Alexander II the Liberator (Alexander Nikolaevich) (1818-1881)
Years of government - 1855-1881
Son of Emperor Nicholas I.
He abolished serfdom in Russia.
Was married twice. First time on Mary, Princess of Hesse. The second marriage was considered morganatic and was concluded with Princess Catherine Dolgoruky.
The emperor died at the hands of terrorists.
Alexander III the Peacemaker (Alexander Alexandrovich) (1845-1894)
Years of government - 1881-1894
Son of Emperor Alexander II.
Under him, Russia was very stable, rapid economic growth began.
He married the Danish princess Dagmar. The marriage produced 4 sons and 2 daughters.
Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich) (1868-1918)
Years of government - 1894-1917
Son of Emperor Alexander III.
The last Russian emperor.
The time of his reign was quite difficult, marked by riots, revolutions, unsuccessful wars and a fading economy.
He was greatly influenced by his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (nee Princess Alice of Hesse). The couple had 4 daughters and a son Alex.
In 1917 the Emperor abdicated.
In 1918, together with his entire family, he was shot by the Bolsheviks.
Ranked by the Russian Orthodox Church to the Face of Saints.
The genus belongs to the ancient families of the Moscow boyars. The first ancestor of this family known to us from the annals, Andrei Ivanovich, who had the nickname Mare, in 1347 was in the service of the Great Vladimir and Moscow Prince Semyon Ivanovich Proud.
Semyon Gordy was the eldest son and heir and continued his father's policy. At that time, the Moscow principality was significantly strengthened, and Moscow began to claim leadership among other lands of North-Eastern Rus'. The Moscow princes not only established good relations with the Golden Horde, but also began to play a more important role in all-Russian affairs. Among the Russian princes, Semyon was revered as the eldest, and few of them dared to contradict him. His character was clearly manifested in family life. After the death of his first wife, the daughter of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, Semyon married a second time.
The Smolensk princess Evpraksia became his chosen one, but already a year after the wedding, the Moscow prince for some reason sent her back to her father, Prince Fyodor Svyatoslavich. Then Semyon decided on a third marriage, this time turning to the old rivals of Moscow - the princes of Tver. In 1347, an embassy went to Tver to woo Princess Maria, the daughter of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver.
At one time, Alexander Mikhailovich tragically died in the Horde, falling victim to the intrigues of Ivan Kalita, Semyon's father. And now the children of irreconcilable enemies were united by marriage. The embassy in Tver was headed by two Moscow boyars - Andrei Kobyla and Alexei Bosovolkov. Thus, for the first time, the ancestor of Tsar Mikhail Romanov appeared on the historical arena.
The embassy has been successful. But Metropolitan Theognost suddenly intervened, refusing to bless this marriage. Moreover, he ordered the closure of Moscow churches to prevent weddings. This position was apparently caused by Semyon's previous divorce. But the prince sent generous gifts to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom the Metropolitan of Moscow was subordinate, and received permission to marry. In 1353, Semyon the Proud died from the plague that raged in Rus'. Nothing more is known about Andrei Kobyl, but his descendants continued to serve the Moscow princes.
According to the pedigrees, the offspring of Andrei Kobyla was extensive. He left five sons, who became the founders of many famous noble families. The sons were named: Semyon the Stallion (did he get his name in honor of Semyon the Proud?), Alexander Yolka, Vasily Ivantei (or Vantei), Gavrila Gavsha (Gavsha - the same as Gabriel, only in a diminutive form; such endings of names on "-sha" were common on Novgorod land) and Fedor Koshka. In addition, Andrei had a younger brother, Fyodor Shevlyaga, from whom the noble families of the Motovilovs, Trusovs, Vorobins and Grabezhevs descended. The nicknames Kobyla, Stallion and Shevlyaga (“nag”) are close in meaning to each other, which is not surprising, since several noble families have a similar tradition - representatives of the same family could bear nicknames, as it were, of the same semantic circle. However, what was the origin of the brothers Andrei and Fyodor Ivanovich themselves?
Genealogies of the 16th - early 17th century do not report anything about this. But already in the first half of the 17th century, when they strengthened themselves on the Russian throne, a legend about their ancestors appeared. Many noble families erected themselves to people from other countries and lands. This became a kind of tradition of the ancient Russian nobility, which, therefore, almost without exception had a "foreign" origin. Moreover, the most popular were two “directions”, from where the “departure” of the noble ancestors allegedly took place: either “from the German”, or “from the Horde”. By "Germans" was meant not only the inhabitants of Germany, but in general all Europeans. Therefore, in the legends about the "departure" of the founders of the clans, one can find the following clarifications: "From the Germans, from the Prus" or "From the Germans, from the Svei (i.e. Swedish) land."
All these legends were similar to each other. Usually a certain “honest man” with a strange name, unusual for Russian hearing, came, often with a retinue, to one of the Grand Dukes for the service. Here he was baptized, and his descendants found themselves in the Russian elite. Then noble families arose from their nicknames, and since many clans erected themselves to the same ancestor, it is quite understandable that various versions of the same legends appeared. The reasons for creating these stories are quite clear. By inventing foreign ancestors for themselves, Russian aristocrats “justified” thereby their leading position in society.
They made their clans older, constructed a high origin, because many ancestors were considered descendants of foreign princes and rulers, thereby emphasizing their exclusivity. Of course, this does not mean that absolutely all the legends were fictitious; probably, the most ancient of them could have had real grounds (for example, the ancestor of the Pushkins - Radsha, judging by the end of the name, was related to Novgorod and lived in the XII century, according to some researchers, could indeed be of foreign origin). But it is not easy to single out these historical facts behind layers of speculation and conjecture. And besides, it can be difficult to unambiguously confirm or refute such a story due to the lack of sources. By the end of the 17th century, and especially in the 18th century, such legends acquired an increasingly fabulous character, turning into pure fantasies of authors poorly familiar with history. The Romanovs did not escape this either.
The creation of the family legend was “undertaken” by representatives of those families that had common ancestors with the Romanovs: the Sheremetevs, the already mentioned Trusovs, the Kolychevs. When in the 1680s the official genealogy book of the Moscow kingdom was created, which later received the name “Velvet” because of its binding, noble families submitted their genealogies to the Discharge Order in charge of this business. The Sheremetevs also presented the painting of their ancestors, and it turned out that, according to their information, the Russian boyar Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla was actually a prince who came from Prussia.
The "Prussian" origin of the ancestor was very common at that time among the ancient families. It has been suggested that this happened because of the "Prussian street" in one of the ends of ancient Novgorod. Along this street there was a road to Pskov, the so-called. "Prussian way". After the annexation of Novgorod to the Muscovite state, many noble families of this city were resettled in Moscow volosts, and vice versa. So, thanks to a misunderstood name, “Prussian” immigrants joined the Moscow nobility. But in the case of Andrei Kobyla, one can rather see the influence of another, very famous at that time, legend.
At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, when a single Moscow state was formed and the Moscow princes began to claim the royal (Caesar, i.e., imperial) title, the well-known idea “Moscow is the Third Rome” appeared. Moscow became the heir to the great Orthodox tradition of the Second Rome - Constantinople, and through it the imperial power of the First Rome - the Rome of the emperors Augustus and Constantine the Great. The succession of power was ensured by the marriage of Ivan III with Sophia Palaiologos, and the legend of "the gifts of Monomakh" - the Byzantine emperor, who transferred the royal crown and other regalia of royal power to Rus' to his grandson Vladimir Monomakh, and the adoption of the imperial double-headed eagle as a state symbol. Visible proof of the greatness of the new kingdom was the magnificent ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin built under Ivan III and Vasily III. This idea was also supported at the genealogical level. It was at this time that a legend arose about the origin of the then ruling Rurik dynasty. The foreign, Varangian origin of Rurik could not fit into the new ideology, and the founder of the princely dynasty became a descendant in the 14th generation of a certain Prus, a relative of Emperor Augustus himself. Prus was allegedly the ruler of ancient Prussia, once inhabited by the Slavs, and his descendants became the rulers of Rus'. And just as the Rurikovichs turned out to be the successors of the Prussian kings, and through them the Roman emperors, so the descendants of Andrei Kobyla created a “Prussian” legend for themselves.
In the future, the legend acquired new details. In a more complete form, it was framed by the stolnik Stepan Andreyevich Kolychev, who under Peter I became the first Russian king of arms. In 1722, he headed the King of Arms office under the Senate, a special institution that dealt with state heraldry and was in charge of accounting and class affairs of the nobility. Now the origin of Andrey Kobyla has "acquired" new features.
In 373 (or even 305) from the Nativity of Christ (at that time the Roman Empire still existed), the Prussian king Pruteno gave the kingdom to his brother Veydevut, and he himself became the high priest of his pagan tribe in the city of Romanov. This city seemed to be located on the banks of the rivers Dubyssa and Nevyazh, at the confluence of which a sacred, evergreen oak of unusual height and thickness grew. Before his death, Veidewut divided his kingdom among his twelve sons. The fourth son was Nedron, whose descendants owned the Samogit lands (part of Lithuania). In the ninth generation, the descendant of Nedron was Dibo. He lived already in the XIII century and constantly defended his lands from the knights of the sword. Finally, in 1280, his sons - Russingen and Glanda Kambila were baptized, and in 1283 Glanda (Glandal or Glandus) Kambila came to Rus' to serve the Moscow prince Daniil Alexandrovich. Here he was baptized and became known as the Mare. According to other versions, Glanda was baptized with the name Ivan in 1287, and Andrei Kobyla was his son.
The artificiality of this story is obvious. Everything in it is fantastic, and no matter how some historians tried to verify its authenticity, their attempts were unsuccessful. Two characteristic motifs stand out. Firstly, the 12 sons of Veydevut are very reminiscent of the 12 sons of Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of Rus', and the fourth son of Nedron is the fourth son of Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise. Secondly, the author's desire to connect the beginning of the Romanov family in Rus' with the first Moscow princes is obvious. After all, Daniil Alexandrovich was not only the founder of the Moscow principality, but also the founder of the Moscow dynasty, whose successors were the Romanovs.
Nevertheless, the “Prussian” legend became very popular and was officially recorded in the “General Armorial of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire”, created on the initiative of Paul I, who decided to streamline all Russian noble heraldry. The noble family coats of arms were entered into the coat of arms, which were approved by the emperor, and along with the image and description of the coat of arms, a certificate of the origin of the family was also given. The descendants of Kobyla - Sheremetevs, Konovnitsyns, Neplyuevs, Yakovlevs and others, noting their "Prussian" origin, introduced the image of the "sacred" oak as one of the figures in their family coats of arms, and the central image itself (two crosses, over which the crown is placed) borrowed from the heraldry of the city of Danzig (Gdansk).
Of course, with the development of historical science, researchers not only critically treated the legend about the origin of the Mare, but also tried to find in it any real historical foundations. The most extensive study of the "Prussian" roots of the Romanovs was undertaken by the outstanding pre-revolutionary historian V.K. Trutovsky, who saw some correspondence between the information in the legend about Gland Kambile and the real situation in the Prussian lands of the 13th century. Historians did not leave such attempts in the future. But if the legend of Gland Kambile could convey to us some grains of historical data, then its “external” design practically reduces this meaning to nothing. It may be of interest from the point of view of the public consciousness of the Russian nobility of the 17th-18th centuries, but in no way in the matter of clarifying the true origin of the reigning family. Such a brilliant connoisseur of Russian genealogy as A.A. Zimin, wrote that Andrei Kobyla "probably came from native Moscow (and Pereslavl) landowners." In any case, be that as it may, it is Andrei Ivanovich who remains the first reliable ancestor of the Romanov dynasty.
Let's return to the real genealogy of his descendants. The eldest son of Kobyla, Semyon Zherebets, became the ancestor of the nobles Lodygins, Konovnitsyns, Kokorevs, Obraztsovs, Gorbunovs. Of these, the Lodygins and Konovnitsyns left the greatest mark on Russian history. Lodygins come from the son of Semyon the Stallion - Grigory Lodyga (“lodyga” is an old Russian word meaning foot, stand, ankle). The famous engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin (1847–1923), who in 1872 invented the electric incandescent lamp in Russia, belonged to this family.
The Konovnitsyns are descended from the grandson of Grigory Lodyga, Ivan Semyonovich Konovnitsa. Among them, General Pyotr Petrovich Konovnitsyn (1764–1822), the hero of many wars waged by Russia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including the Patriotic War of 1812, became famous. He distinguished himself in the battles for Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, in the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig, and in the Battle of Borodino he commanded the Second Army after the wounding of Prince P.I. Bagration. In 1815-1819, Konovnitsyn was Minister of War, and in 1819 he was elevated, together with his offspring, to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire.
From the second son of Andrei Kobyla, Alexander Yolka, the Kolychevs, Sukhovo-Kobylins, Sterbeevs, Khludenevs, and Neplyuevs descended. The eldest son of Alexander Fyodor Kolych (from the word "kolcha", that is, lame) became the ancestor of the Kolychevs. Of the representatives of this genus, St. Philip (in the world Fedor Stepanovich Kolychev, 1507-1569). In 1566 he became Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. Angrily denouncing the atrocities of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Philip was deposed in 1568 and then strangled by one of the leaders of the guardsmen, Malyuta Skuratov.
Sukhovo-Kobylins descend from another son of Alexander Yolka - Ivan Sukhoi (that is, "thin"). The most prominent representative of this kind was the playwright Alexander Vasilievich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817–1903), the author of the trilogy Krechinsky's Wedding, The Case and Tarelkin's Death. In 1902, he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. His sister, Sofya Vasilyevna (1825–1867), an artist who received a large gold medal from the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1854 for a landscape from life (which she depicted in a painting of the same name from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery), also painted portraits and genre compositions. Another sister, Elizaveta Vasilievna (1815–1892), married Countess Salias de Tournemire, gained fame as a writer under the pseudonym Eugenia Tour. Her son, Count Evgeny Andreevich Salias de Tournemire (1840–1908), was also a famous writer in his time, a historical novelist (he was called the Russian Alexandre Dumas). His sister, Maria Andreevna (1841–1906), was the wife of Field Marshal Iosif Vladimirovich Gurko (1828–1901), and his granddaughter, Princess Evdokia (Eda) Yuryevna Urusova (1908–1996), was an outstanding theater and film actress of the Soviet era.
The youngest son of Alexander Yolka, Fyodor Dyutka (Dyudka, Dudka or even Detko), became the founder of the Neplyuev family. Among the Neplyuevs, Ivan Ivanovich Neplyuev (1693–1773), a diplomat, who was a Russian resident in Turkey (1721–1734), and then governor of the Orenburg Territory, since 1760 a senator and conference minister, stands out.
The offspring of Vasily Ivantey was cut short by his son Gregory, who died childless.
From the fourth son of Kobyla, Gavrila Gavsha, came the Boborykins. This family gave birth to the talented writer Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836–1921), the author of the novels "Businessmen", "China Town" and among others, by the way, "Vasily Terkin" (except for the name, this literary character has nothing to do with the hero A. T. Tvardovsky).
Finally, the fifth son of Andrei Kobyla, Fyodor Koshka, was the immediate ancestor of the Romanovs. He served Dmitry Donskoy and is repeatedly mentioned in the annals among his associates. Perhaps it was he who was instructed by the prince to defend Moscow during the famous war with Mamai, which ended with the victory of the Russians on the Kulikovo field. Before his death, Koshka took the tonsure and was named Theodorite. His family intermarried with the Moscow and Tver princely dynasties - branches of the Rurik dynasty. So, the daughter of Fyodor - Anna in 1391 was married to the Mikulin prince Fyodor Mikhailovich. Mikulinsky inheritance was part of the Tver land, and Fedor Mikhailovich himself was the youngest son of the Tver prince Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail Alexandrovich was at enmity with Dmitry Donskoy for a long time. Three times he received a label in the Horde for the Great Vladimir reign, but each time, due to the opposition of Dmitry, he could not become the main Russian prince. However, gradually the strife between the Moscow and Tver princes came to naught. Back in 1375, at the head of a whole coalition of princes, Dmitry made a successful campaign against Tver, and since then Mikhail Alexandrovich abandoned attempts to seize leadership from the Moscow prince, although relations between them remained tense. Marriage with the Koshkins was probably supposed to contribute to the establishment of friendly relations between the eternal enemies.
But not only Tver was embraced by the descendants of Fyodor Koshka with their matrimonial policy. Soon, the Moscow princes themselves fell into their orbit. Among the sons of Koshka was Fyodor Goltyay, whose daughter, Maria, in the winter of 1407, one of the sons of Serpukhov and Borovsk prince Vladimir Andreevich, Yaroslav, married.
Vladimir Andreevich, the founder of Serpukhov, was a cousin of Dmitry Donskoy. Between them there were always the kindest friendships. The brothers took many important steps in the life of the Moscow State together. So, together they led the construction of the white-stone Moscow Kremlin, together they fought on the Kulikovo field. Moreover, it was Vladimir Andreevich with the governor D.M. Bobrok-Volynsky commanded an ambush regiment, which at a critical moment decided the outcome of the entire battle. Therefore, he entered with the nickname not only Brave, but also Donskoy.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich, and in his honor the city of Maloyaroslavets was founded, where he reigned, also bore the name Athanasius in baptism. This was one of the last cases when, according to a long tradition, the Rurikovich gave their children double names: secular and baptismal. The prince died from pestilence in 1426 and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where his grave exists to this day. From marriage with the granddaughter of Fyodor Koshka, Yaroslav had a son, Vasily, who inherited the entire Borovsko-Serpukhov inheritance, and two daughters, Maria and Elena. In 1433, Maria was married to the young Moscow prince Vasily II Vasilyevich, the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy.
At this time, a cruel strife began on Moscow soil between Vasily and his mother Sofya Vitovtovna, on the one hand, and the family of his uncle Yuri Dmitrievich, Prince Zvenigorodsky, on the other. Yuri and his sons - Vasily (in the future blinded in one eye and became Oblique) and Dmitry Shemyaka (the nickname comes from the Tatar "chimek" - "outfit") - claimed the reign of Moscow. Both Yuryevich were present at Vasily's wedding in Moscow. And it was here that the famous historical episode took place, fueling this irreconcilable struggle. Seeing on Vasily Yuryevich a golden belt that once belonged to Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tore it off, deciding that it did not belong to the Zvenigorod prince by right. One of the initiators of this scandal was the grandson of Fyodor Koshka Zakhary Ivanovich. The offended Yurievichs left the wedding feast, and the war soon broke out. During it, Vasily II was blinded by Shemyaka and became the Dark One, but in the end, the victory remained on his side. With the death of Shemyaka, who was poisoned in Novgorod, Vasily could no longer worry about the future of his reign. During the war, Vasily Yaroslavich, who became the brother-in-law of the Moscow prince, supported him in everything. But in 1456, Vasily II ordered his relative to be arrested and sent to prison in the city of Uglich. There the unfortunate son of Maria Goltyaeva spent 27 years until he died in 1483. His grave can be seen at the left side of the iconostasis of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral. There is also a portrait image of this prince. The children of Vasily Yaroslavich died in captivity, and the second wife with her son from her first marriage, Ivan, managed to escape to Lithuania. There, the family of Borovsky princes did not last long.
From Maria Yaroslavna Vasily II had several sons, including Ivan III. Thus, all representatives of the Moscow princely dynasty, starting with Vasily II and up to the sons and granddaughter of Ivan the Terrible, were descendants of the Koshkins in the female line.
Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna tearing off the belt from Vasily Kosoy at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. From a painting by P.P. Chistyakov. 1861
The descendants of Fyodor Koshka consistently bore the surnames of the Koshkins, Zakharyins, Yuryevs, and, finally, the Romanovs as generic names. In addition to the daughter of Anna and the son of Fyodor Goltai, mentioned above, Fyodor Koshka had sons Ivan, Alexander Bezzubts, Nikifor and Mikhail the Bad. The descendants of Alexander were nicknamed the Bezzubtsevs, and then the Sheremetevs and the Yepanchins. The Sheremetevs descend from Alexander's grandson, Andrey Konstantinovich Sheremet, and the Yepanchins from another grandson, Semyon Konstantinovich Yepanchi (an old cloak-like garment was called an epancha).
The Sheremetevs are one of the most famous Russian noble families. Probably the most famous of the Sheremetevs is Boris Petrovich (1652–1719). An associate of Peter the Great, one of the first Russian general field marshals (the first Russian by origin), he participated in the Crimean and Azov campaigns, became famous for victories in the Northern War, commanded the Russian army in the Battle of Poltava. One of the first he was elevated by Peter to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire (obviously, this happened in 1710). Among the descendants of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, Russian historians especially revere Count Sergei Dmitrievich (1844–1918), a prominent researcher of Russian antiquity, chairman of the Archaeographic Commission under the Ministry of Public Education, who did a lot for the publication and study of documents of the Russian Middle Ages. His wife was the granddaughter of Prince Peter Andreevich Vyazemsky, and his son Pavel Sergeevich (1871–1943) also became a famous historian and genealogist. This branch of the family owned the famous Ostafievo near Moscow (inherited from the Vyazemskys), preserved through the efforts of Pavel Sergeevich after the revolutionary events of 1917. The descendants of Sergei Dmitrievich, who ended up in exile, became related there with the Romanovs. This family still exists, in particular, a descendant of Sergei Dmitrievich, Count Pyotr Petrovich, who now lives in Paris, heads the Russian Conservatory named after S.V. Rachmaninov. The Sheremetevs owned two architectural gems near Moscow: Ostankino and Kuskovo. How not to recall here the serf actress Praskovya Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, who became Countess Sheremeteva, and her wife Count Nikolai Petrovich (1751–1809), the founder of the famous Moscow Hospice House (now the building houses the N.V. Sklifosovsky Institute for Emergency Medicine). Sergei Dmitrievich was the grandson of N.P. Sheremetev and a serf actress.
The Yepanchins are less noticeable in Russian history, but they also left their mark on it. In the 19th century, representatives of this family served in the navy, and two of them, Nikolai and Ivan Petrovich, heroes of the Battle of Navarino in 1827, became Russian admirals. Their great-nephew, General Nikolai Alekseevich Yepanchin (1857–1941), a well-known military historian, served as director of the Page Corps in 1900–1907. Already in exile, he wrote interesting memoirs “In the service of three emperors”, published in Russia in 1996.
Actually, the Romanov family comes from the eldest son of Fyodor Koshka - Ivan, who was the boyar of Vasily I. It was the son of Ivan Koshka Zakhary Ivanovich who identified the notorious belt in 1433 at the wedding of Vasily the Dark. Zacharias had three sons, so the Koshkins were divided into three more branches. The younger ones - Lyatsky (Lyatsky) - left to serve in Lithuania, and their traces were lost there. The eldest son of Zacharias - Yakov Zakharievich (died in 1510), boyar and governor under Ivan III and Vasily III, for some time governor in Novgorod and Kolomna, took part in the war with Lithuania and, in particular, took the cities of Bryansk and Putivl, which then departed to the Russian state. The descendants of Jacob formed the noble family of the Yakovlevs. He is known for his two “illegal” representatives: in 1812, the wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767–1846) and the daughter of a German official Louise Ivanovna Haag (1795–1851), who were not legally married, had a son, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (d. . in 1870) (grandson of A.I. Herzen - Pyotr Alexandrovich Herzen (1871–1947) - one of the largest domestic surgeons, a specialist in clinical oncology). And in 1819, his brother Lev Alekseevich Yakovlev had an illegitimate son, Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (d. 1898), one of the most famous Russian photographers (who was A.I. Herzen's cousin).
The middle son of Zacharias - Yuri Zakharievich (died in 1505 [?]), boyar and governor under Ivan III, like his elder brother, fought with the Lithuanians in the famous battle near the Vedrosha River in 1500. His wife was Irina Ivanovna Tuchkova, a representative of a well-known noble family. The surname of the Romanovs came from one of the sons of Yuri and Irina okolnichiy Roman Yuryevich (died in 1543). It was his family that became related to the royal dynasty.
On February 3, 1547, the sixteen-year-old tsar, who had been crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin a fortnight before, married Anastasia, the daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin. Ivan's family life with Anastasia was happy. The young wife gave her husband three sons and three daughters. Unfortunately, the daughters died in childhood. The fate of the sons was different. The eldest son Dmitry died at the age of nine months. When the royal family made a pilgrimage to the Kirillov Monastery on Beloozero, they took the little prince with them.
There was a strict ceremonial at court: the baby was carried in her arms by a nanny, and two boyars, relatives of Queen Anastasia, supported her by the arms. The journey took place along the rivers, on plows. One day, the nanny with the prince and the boyars stepped onto the shaky gangway of the plow, and, unable to resist, everyone fell into the water. Dimitri choked. Then Ivan called this name his youngest son from his last marriage to Maria Naga. However, the fate of this boy turned out to be tragic: at the age of nine he. The name Dmitry was unlucky for the Grozny family.
The second son of the tsar, Ivan Ivanovich, had a difficult character. Cruel and domineering, he could become a complete likeness of his father. But in 1581, the 27-year-old prince was mortally wounded by Grozny during a quarrel. The reason for the unbridled outburst of anger was allegedly the third wife of Tsarevich Ivan (he sent the first two to the monastery) - Elena Ivanovna Sheremeteva, a distant relative of the Romanovs. Being pregnant, she showed herself to her father-in-law in a light shirt, "in an indecent form." The king beat his daughter-in-law, who then had a miscarriage. Ivan stood up for his wife and immediately received a blow to the temple with an iron staff. A few days later he died, and Elena was tonsured with the name of Leonid in one of the monasteries.
After the death of the heir, Grozny's successor was his third son from Anastasia, Fedor. In 1584 he became the Tsar of Moscow. Fyodor Ivanovich was distinguished by a quiet and meek disposition. He was disgusted by the cruel tyranny of his father, and he spent a significant part of his reign in prayers and fasts, atoning for the sins of his ancestors. Such a high spiritual mood of the tsar seemed strange to his subjects, which is why the popular legend about Fedor's dementia appeared. In 1598, he peacefully fell asleep forever, and his brother-in-law Boris Godunov took over the throne. Fedor's only daughter, Theodosius, died a little before the age of two. Thus ended the offspring of Anastasia Romanovna.
With her kind, gentle character, Anastasia restrained the cruel temper of the king. But in August 1560, the queen died. An analysis of her remains, now in the basement chamber of the Archangel Cathedral, already carried out in our time, showed a high probability that Anastasia was poisoned. After her death, a new stage began in the life of Ivan the Terrible: the era of Oprichnina and lawlessness.
Ivan's marriage to Anastasia brought her relatives to the forefront of Moscow politics. The queen's brother, Nikita Romanovich (died in 1586), was especially popular. He became famous as a talented commander and brave warrior during the Livonian War, rose to the rank of boyar and was one of the close associates of Ivan the Terrible. He entered the inner circle and Tsar Fedor. Shortly before his death, Nikita took the tonsure with the name of Nifont. Was married twice. His first wife, Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina, came from the Khovrin-Golovin family, which later gave rise to several famous figures in Russian history, including an associate of Peter I, Admiral Fyodor Alekseevich Golovin. The second wife of Nikita Romanovich - Princess Evdokia Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuiskaya - belonged to the descendants of the Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod Rurikovich. Nikita Romanovich lived in his chambers on Varvarka Street in Moscow, where in the middle of the 19th century. museum was opened.
Seven sons and five daughters of Nikita Romanovich continued this boyar family. For a long time, researchers doubted from which marriage Nikita Romanovich was born his eldest son Fyodor Nikitich, the future patriarch Filaret, the father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty. After all, if his mother was Princess Gorbataya-Shuiskaya, then the Romanovs are therefore descendants of the Rurikovichs through the female line. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, historians assumed that Fyodor Nikitich was most likely born from his father's first marriage. And only in recent years this question, apparently, was finally resolved. During the study of the Romanov necropolis in Moscow's Novospassky Monastery, a tombstone of Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina was discovered. In the tomb epitaph, the year of her death should probably be read as 7063, i.e. 1555 (she died on June 29), and not 7060 (1552), as previously believed. Such dating removes the question of the origin of Fyodor Nikitich, who died in 1633, having been “more than 80 years old”. The ancestors of Varvara Ivanovna and, consequently, the ancestors of the entire royal House of Romanov, Khovrina, came from the merchant people of the Crimean Sudak and had Greek roots.
Fyodor Nikitich Romanov served as a regimental governor, participated in campaigns against the cities of Koporye, Yam and Ivangorod during the successful Russian-Swedish war of 1590-1595, defended the southern borders of Russia from the Crimean raids. A prominent position at court made it possible for the Romanovs to intermarry with other then-known families: the princes Sitsky, Cherkassky, and also with the Godunovs (Boris Fedorovich's nephew married the daughter of Nikita Romanovich, Irina). But these family ties did not save the Romanovs after the death of their benefactor Tsar Fedor from disgrace.
With the accession to the throne, everything changed. Hating the entire Romanov family, afraid of them as potential rivals in the struggle for power, the new tsar began to eliminate his opponents one by one. In 1600-1601, repressions fell upon the Romanovs. Fyodor Nikitich was forcibly tonsured a monk (under the name Filaret) and sent to the distant St. Anthony Monastery in the Arkhangelsk district. The same fate befell his wife Xenia Ivanovna Shestova. She was tonsured under the name of Marfa, she was exiled to the Tolvuysky churchyard in Zaonezhye, and then lived with her children in the village of Klin, Yuryevsky district. Her young daughter Tatyana and son Mikhail (the future tsar) were taken to a prison on Beloozero together with her aunt Anastasia Nikitichnaya, who later became the wife of a prominent figure in the Time of Troubles, Prince Boris Mikhailovich Lykov-Obolensky. The brother of Fyodor Nikitich, boyar Alexander, was exiled on a false denunciation to one of the villages of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, where he was killed. Another brother died in disgrace, the devious Mikhail, who was transported from Moscow to the remote Permian village of Nyrob. There he died in prison and in chains from hunger. Another son of Nikita, stolnik Vasily, died in the city of Pelym, where he and his brother Ivan were kept chained to the wall. And their sisters Efimia (monastic Evdokia) and Martha went into exile together with their husbands - the princes of Sitsky and Cherkassky. Only Martha survived the imprisonment. Thus, almost the entire Romanov family was defeated. Miraculously, only Ivan Nikitich, nicknamed Kasha, survived after a short exile.
But the Godunov dynasty was not allowed to rule in Rus'. The fire of the Great Troubles was already flaring up, and in this seething cauldron the Romanovs emerged from oblivion. The active and energetic Fyodor Nikitich (Filaret) returned to "big" politics at the first opportunity - False Dmitry I made his benefactor Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl. The fact is that once Grigory Otrepyev was his servant. There is even a version that the Romanovs specially prepared the ambitious adventurer for the role of the "legitimate" heir to the Moscow throne. Be that as it may, Filaret occupied a prominent place in the church hierarchy.
He made a new career "jump" with the help of another impostor - False Dmitry II, "Tushinsky Thief". In 1608, during the capture of Rostov, the Tushinos captured Filaret and brought an impostor to the camp. False Dmitry offered him to become patriarch, and Filaret agreed. In Tushino, in general, a second capital was formed, as it were: there was its own tsar, there were their own boyars, their own orders, and now also their own patriarch (in Moscow, the patriarchal throne was occupied by Hermogenes). When the Tushino camp collapsed, Filaret managed to return to Moscow, where he participated in the overthrow of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. The Seven Boyars that formed after that included the younger brother of the "patriarch" Ivan Nikitich Romanov, who received the boyars on the day of Otrepiev's wedding to the kingdom. As you know, the new government decided to invite the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, to the Russian throne and concluded an appropriate agreement with the hetman Stanislav Zholkevsky, and in order to settle all the formalities, a “great embassy” was sent from Moscow to Smolensk, where the king was Filaret. However, negotiations with King Sigismund stalled, the ambassadors were arrested and sent to Poland. There, in captivity, Filaret stayed until 1619, and only after the conclusion of the Deulino truce and the end of a long war, he returned to Moscow. The Russian Tsar was already his son Michael.
Filaret had now become the "legitimate" Patriarch of Moscow and exerted a very significant influence on the policy of the young tsar. He proved to be a very domineering and sometimes even tough person. His court was built on the model of the royal one, and several special, patriarchal, orders were formed to manage land holdings. Filaret also took care of enlightenment, resuming the printing of liturgical books in Moscow after the ruin. He paid much attention to foreign policy issues and even created one of the diplomatic ciphers of that time.
The wife of Fyodor-Filaret, Xenia Ivanovna, came from an ancient family of Shestovs. Mikhail Prushanin, or, as he was also called, Misha, an associate of Alexander Nevsky, was considered their ancestor. He was also the ancestor of such famous families as the Morozovs, Saltykovs, Sheins, Tuchkovs, Cheglokovs, Scriabins. Misha's descendants became related to the Romanovs back in the 15th century, since the mother of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin was one of the Tuchkovs. By the way, the Kostroma village of Domnino, where Ksenia and her son Mikhail lived for some time after the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, also belonged to the Shestovs' patrimonial estates. The headman of this village, Ivan Susanin, became famous for saving the young king from death at the cost of his life. After her son's accession to the throne, the "great old woman" Martha helped him in governing the country until his father, Filaret, returned from captivity.
Ksenia-Martha was distinguished by a kind character. So, remembering the widows of previous tsars - Ivan the Terrible, Vasily Shuisky, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich - who lived in monasteries, she repeatedly sent them gifts. She often went on a pilgrimage, was strict in matters of religion, but did not shy away from the joys of life: in the Ascension Kremlin Monastery she organized a gold-embroidery workshop, from which beautiful fabrics and clothes came out for the royal court.
Mikhail Fedorovich's uncle Ivan Nikitich (died in 1640) also occupied a prominent place at the court of his nephew. With the death of his son, boyar and butler Nikita Ivanovich, in 1654, all other branches of the Romanovs, except for the royal offspring of Mikhail Fedorovich, ceased. The family tomb of the Romanovs was the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, where in recent years great work has been carried out to explore and restore this ancient necropolis. As a result, many burial places of the ancestors of the royal dynasty were identified, and according to some remains, experts even recreated portrait images, including those of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, the great-grandfather of Tsar Mikhail.
The family coat of arms of the Romanovs dates back to the Livonian heraldry and was created in the middle of the 19th century. outstanding Russian heraldist Baron B.V. Köhne on the basis of emblematic images on objects that belonged to the Romanovs in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries. The description of the coat of arms is as follows:
“In a silver field, a scarlet vulture holding a golden sword and a tarch crowned with a small eagle; on a black border are eight torn off lion heads: four gold and four silver.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Pchelov
Romanovs. History of the great dynasty
Over the past 300 years or so, autocracy in Russia has been directly linked to the Romanov dynasty. They managed to gain a foothold on the throne during the Time of Troubles. The sudden appearance of a new dynasty on the political horizon is the biggest event in the life of any state. Usually it is accompanied by a coup or revolution, but in any case, the change of power entails the removal of the old ruling elite by force.
background
In Russia, the emergence of a new dynasty was due to the fact that the Rurik branch was interrupted with the death of the descendants of Ivan IV the Terrible. This state of affairs in the country gave rise not only to the deepest political, but also to a social crisis. Ultimately, this led to the fact that foreigners began to interfere in the affairs of the state.
It should be noted that never before in the history of Russia have rulers changed so often, bringing new dynasties with them, as after the death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In those days, not only representatives of the elite, but also other social strata claimed the throne. Foreigners also tried to intervene in the struggle for power.
On the throne, one after another, the descendants of the Rurikovichs appeared in the person of Vasily Shuisky (1606-1610), representatives of the untitled boyars headed by Boris Godunov (1597-1605), there were even impostors - False Dmitry I (1605-1606) and False Dmitry II (1607-1607- 1610). But none of them managed to stay in power for a long time. This continued until 1613, when the Russian tsars of the Romanov dynasty came.
Origin
It should be noted right away that this genus as such came from the Zakharievs. And the Romanovs are not quite the right surname. It all started with the fact that, that is, Zakhariev Fedor Nikolaevich, decided to change his last name. Guided by the fact that his father was Nikita Romanovich, and his grandfather was Roman Yuryevich, he came up with the surname "Romanov". Thus, the genus received a new name, which is used in our time.
The royal dynasty of the Romanovs (reigned 1613-1917) began with Mikhail Fedorovich. After him, Alexei Mikhailovich ascended the throne, nicknamed by the people "Quiet". Then there was Alekseevna and Ivan V Alekseevich.
During the reign - in 1721 - the state was finally reformed and became the Russian Empire. The kings have sunk into oblivion. Now the sovereign has become emperor. In total, the Romanovs gave Russia 19 rulers. Among them - 5 women. Here is a table that clearly shows the entire Romanov dynasty, years of government and titles.
As mentioned above, the Russian throne was sometimes occupied by women. But the government of Paul I passed a law that from now on only the direct male heir can bear the title of emperor. Since then, no woman has ascended the throne again.
The Romanov dynasty, whose years of rule did not always fall on calm times, received its official coat of arms as early as 1856. It depicts a vulture holding a tarch and a golden sword in its paws. The edges of the coat of arms are decorated with eight severed heads of lions.
The last Emperor
In 1917, the power in the country was seized by the Bolsheviks, who overthrew the government of the country. Emperor Nicholas II was the last of the Romanov dynasty. He was given the nickname "Bloody" for the fact that during the two revolutions of 1905 and 1917, thousands of people were killed on his orders.
Historians believe that the last emperor was a gentle ruler, so he made several unforgivable mistakes in both domestic and foreign policy. It was they who led to the fact that the situation in the country escalated to the limit. Failures in the Japanese, and then the First World War, greatly undermined the authority of the emperor himself and the entire royal family.
In 1918, on the night of July 17, the royal family, which included, in addition to the emperor himself and his wife, also five children, was shot by the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the only heir to the Russian throne, the little son of Nicholas, Alexei, also died.
Nowadays
The Romanovs are the oldest boyar family, which gave Russia a great dynasty of tsars, and then emperors. They ruled the state for a little over three hundred years, starting from the 16th century. The Romanov dynasty, whose years of rule ended with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, was interrupted, but several branches of this kind still exist today. All of them live abroad. Approximately 200 of them have various titles, but not a single one will be able to take the Russian throne, even if the monarchy is restored.
In the Kremlin, in the Armory Chamber, two plain-looking sabers are kept. But, despite the unpresentable appearance, they are priceless relics of Russia. These sabers were the military weapons of Minin and Pozharsky. In 1612, Kuzma Minin, a merchant from Nizhny Novgorod, called on the Russian people to fight the Polish invaders, and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky led the people's militia.
In the autumn of the same year, the Mother See was cleared of Polish lords. After that, the Zemsky Sobor met, which elected Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov to the throne. The Romanov family itself came from the family of Tsarina Anastasia (the first wife of Ivan the Terrible). The people loved her and revered her for her kindness and meekness. The formidable king himself loved her and was very worried after the death of his wife.
All this was the reason that the representatives of the Russian lands, who gathered at the Zemsky Sobor, made a choice in favor of a 16-year-old boy who was a descendant of Anastasia. This was announced to him in the Ipatiev Monastery in the city of Kostroma. Thus began the reign of the Romanov dynasty. It lasted 300 years and turned the Russian land into a huge and great power.
Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645)
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676)
Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682)
Triarchy and Princess Sofia Alekseevna (1682-1689)
Peter I the Great (1689-1725)
The tsar, and then the emperor Peter I, is considered a great reformer who turned the Muscovite kingdom into the Russian Empire. His merits include the defeat of the Swedes, access to the Baltic Sea, the construction of St. Petersburg, the rapid growth of the metallurgical industry. The state administration, the judiciary and the education system were transformed. In 1721, the Russian tsar began to be called the emperor, and the country the empire.
Read more in the article Peter I Romanov.
Empress Catherine I (1725-1727)
Emperor Peter II (1727-1730)
Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740)
Ivan VI and the Brunswick family (1740-1741)
Empress Elizabeth (1741-1761)
Emperor Peter III (1761-1762)
Empress Catherine II the Great (1762-1796)
Emperor Paul I (1796-1801)
Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825)
Emperor Nicholas I (1825-1855)
Emperor Alexander II the Liberator (1855-1881)
Emperor Alexander III the Peacemaker (1881-1894)
Emperor Nicholas II (1894-1917)
Nicholas II became the last emperor of the Romanov dynasty. Under him, the Khodynka tragedy and Bloody Sunday took place. The Russo-Japanese War was extremely unsuccessful. At the same time, the economy of the Russian Empire was on the rise. At its peak, the First World War began, ending with a revolution and the abdication of the emperor from the throne. The renunciation manifesto was signed on March 2, 1917. Nicholas II abdicated in favor of his brother Mikhail, but he also renounced power.
Leonid Druzhnikov
The Romanovs are a Russian boyar family that began its existence in the 16th century and gave rise to a great dynasty of Russian tsars and emperors who ruled until 1917.
For the first time, the surname "Romanov" was used by Fedor Nikitich (Patriarch Filaret), who named himself so in honor of his grandfather Roman Yuryevich and father Nikita Romanovich Zakhariev, he is considered the first Romanov
The first royal representative of the dynasty was Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the last was Nikolai 2 Aleksandrovich Romanov.
In 1856, the emblem of the Romanov family was approved, it depicts a vulture holding a golden sword and a tarch, and eight cut off lion heads along the edges.
"House of the Romanovs" - the designation of the totality of all the descendants of different branches of the Romanovs.
Since 1761, the descendants of the Romanovs in the female line reigned in Russia, and with the death of Nicholas 2 and his family, there were no direct heirs left who could claim the throne. However, despite this, today dozens of descendants of the royal family, of varying degrees of kinship, live all over the world, and all of them officially belong to the Romanov family. The family tree of modern Romanovs is very extensive and has many branches.
Prehistory of the Romanovs
There is no consensus among scientists where the Romanov family came from. To date, two versions are widespread: according to one, the ancestors of the Romanovs arrived in Rus' from Prussia, and according to the other, from Novgorod.
In the 16th century, the Romanov family became close to the tsar and could claim the throne. This happened due to the fact that Ivan the Terrible married Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina, and her whole family has now become related to the sovereign. After the suppression of the Rurik family, the Romanovs (former Zakharyevs) became the main contenders for the state throne.
In 1613, one of the representatives of the Romanovs, Mikhail Fedorovich, was elected to the kingdom, which was the beginning of the long reign of the Romanov dynasty in Russia.
Tsars of the Romanov dynasty
- Fedor Alekseevich;
- Ivan 5;
In 1721, Russia became an Empire, and all its rulers became emperors.
Emperors of the Romanov dynasty
The end of the Romanov dynasty and the last Romanov
Despite the fact that there were empresses in Russia, Paul 1 adopted a decree according to which the Russian throne could only be transferred to a boy - a direct descendant of the family. From that moment until the very end of the dynasty, Russia was ruled exclusively by men.
The last emperor was Nicholas 2. During his reign, the political situation in Russia became very tense. The Japanese war, as well as the First World War, greatly undermined the faith of the people in the sovereign. As a result, in 1905, after the revolution, Nicholas signed a manifesto that gave the people extensive civil rights, but this did not help much either. In 1917, a new revolution broke out, as a result of which the tsar was overthrown. On the night of July 16-17, 1917, the entire royal family, including Nikolai's five children, was shot. Other relatives of Nicholas, who were in the royal residence in Tsarskoye Selo and other places, were also caught and killed. Only those who were abroad survived.
The Russian throne was left without a direct heir, and the state system in the country changed - the monarchy was overthrown, the Empire was destroyed.
The results of the reign of the Romanovs
During the reign of the Romanov dynasty, Russia reached its present peak. Rus' finally ceased to be a disparate state, civil strife ended, and the country gradually began to gain military and economic power, which allowed it to defend its own independence and resist the invaders.
Despite the difficulties that periodically occurred in the history of Russia, by the 19th century the country had turned into a huge powerful Empire, which owned vast territories. In 1861, serfdom was completely abolished, the country switched to a new type of economy and economy.
