The Empire lasted until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917. The third-largest empire in history, at one point stretching over three continents"Europe, Asia, and North America"the Russian Empire was surpassed in size only by the British and Mongol empires.
With 125.6 million subjects according to the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it featured great economic, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity.
From the 10th through the 17th centuries, the land was ruled by a noble class, the boyars, above whom was a tsar, who later became an emperor. Tsar Ivan III (14621505) laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged. He tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from its beginning in 1721 until 1762.
Its matrilineal branch of patrilineal German descent, the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, ruled from 1762 until the end of the empire. By the end of the 19th century, it would acquire Central Asia and parts of Northeast Asia. Emperor Peter I (16821725) fought numerous wars and expanded an already vast empire into a major European power. He moved the capital from Moscow to the new model city of Saint Petersburg, which was largely built according to Western design.
He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political mores with a modern, scientific, Western-oriented, and rationalist system. Empress Catherine the Great (17621796) presided over a golden age; she expanded the state by conquest, colonization, and diplomacy, while continuing Peter I's policy of modernization along Western European lines. Emperor Alexander I (18011825) played a major role in defeating Napoleon's ambitions to control Europe, as well as constituting the Holy Alliance of conservative monarchies. Russia further expanded to the west, south, and east, becoming one of the most powerful European empires of the time.
Its victories in the Russo-Turkish Wars were checked by defeat in the Crimean War (18531856), which led to a period of reform and intensified expansion in Central Asia. Emperor Alexander II (18551881) initiated numerous reforms, most dramatic Item ordered may not be exact piece shown.