A VISUAL history of 17th-century Russia (PICS)

1. Karl Wenig. ‘The Last Minutes of Grigory Otrepiev’, 1879

In 1598, with the death of the childless Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, the Rurik dynasty came to an end. The Russian state plunged into a period of severe political crisis known as the ‘Time of Troubles’. The situation was exacerbated by the mass famine of 1601-1603.

The country suffered from uprisings, foreign interventions, constant changes in rulers and the emergence of various impostors who claimed to be Ivan the Terrible's long-dead son, Tsarevich Dmitry. One of them, the monk Grigory Otrepyev (False Dmitry I), supported by Polish-Lithuanian magnates, even managed to occupy the throne for nearly a year. On May 27, 1606, he was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy orchestrated by Prince Vasily Shuisky.

2. Nikolai Nevrev. ‘Zakhary Lyapunov & Vasily Shuisky’, 1886

Just two days after the assassination of False Dmitry I, Shuisky was proclaimed Tsar. However, his power was extremely precarious; the country was in turmoil, a major peasant uprising led by Vasily Bolotnikov had begun and a new impostor, False Dmitry II, had emerged. Shuisky appealed to the Swedes for military assistance, to which Polish troops immediately invaded the Russian state.

On July 27, 1610, a group of courtiers led by Zakhary Lyapunov overthrew the ruler, who had failed to cope with these challenges. Shuisky was handed over to the Poles and he died in prison near Warsaw two years later.

3. Vasily Demidov. ‘The Liberation of Moscow by Prince Pozharsky and Citizen Minin’, 1836 

After Shuisky's overthrow, power in the state was seized by a group of boyars, known as the Seven Boyars. It offered the throne to Władysław, the son of the Polish King Sigismund III. Following this, a Polish-Lithuanian garrison entered and stationed itself in Moscow.

However, not everyone in the country was enthusiastic about the union with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1611, the First People's Militia attempted to liberate Moscow from the invaders, but failed. However, the Second Militia, led by the Nizhny Novgorod citizen Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, succeeded in doing so in 1612.

4. Grigory Ugryumov. ‘The Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar on March 14, 1613’, no later than 1800

After the liberation of the capital, the question of selecting a new sovereign arose. The Zemsky Sobor, a gathering of representatives from various regions and social classes, held in 1613, chose Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov as the candidate, who was seen as a compromise. Thus began a new dynasty that ruled Russia until the February Revolution of 1917.

5. Grigory Sedov. ‘Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's Chooses his Bride’, 1882

The reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676) was characterized by the consolidation of autocratic power and the legal enslavement of the peasants. The tsar was nicknamed the ‘Quiet One’, according to one version, because of his gentle nature; while another suggests it was because he quelled numerous popular uprisings and effectively maintained "quiet" – order and prosperity – in the country. The ruler was married twice: to Maria Miloslavskaya and Natalia Naryshkina, with whom he fathered the future Emperor Peter I.

6. Mikhail Khmelko. ‘Forever with Moscow, Forever with the Russian People’, 1951

In 1648, a large-scale uprising by the Zaporozhian Cossacks, supported by masses of Orthodox peasants, broke out on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the leader of the uprising, repeatedly appealed to Alexei Mikhailovich to accept the Zaporozhian Army under the "sovereign's high hand", but the tsar maintained a wait-and-see approach for a long time. It was not until the end of 1653 that the Zemsky Sobor proclaimed the acceptance of the cossacks "with their cities and lands" into Russian subjection. The cossacks confirmed this decision at a council (assembly) in Pereyaslav on January 18, 1654.

7. Nikolai Sverchkov. ‘Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's Departure to Review Troops in 1664’, 1864

The admission of the Zaporizhian Army into Russian subjects signaled the immediate outbreak of war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This bitter and grueling conflict lasted from 1654 to 1667 and ended with the ‘Truce of Andrusovo’. Russia gained Smolensk with its surrounding territories, as well as Left-Bank Ukraine. The Zaporizhian Sich (the Zaporizhian Army in the lower reaches of the Dnieper) came under the joint control of the two powers.

8. Pyotr Myasoedov. ‘The Burning of Archpriest Avvakum’, 1897

In the early 1650s, Patriarch Nikon initiated a whole series of reforms aimed at unifying church rules according to the Greek model. Among other things, the two-fingered sign of the cross was replaced by the three-fingered one, prostrations were replaced by bowing at the waist, the principles of icon painting were changed and liturgical books began to be edited based on Greek primary sources.

Opponents of the reforms became known as Old Believers. The Church declared them heretics and subjected them to persecution. The most notorious incident occurred in Pustozersk, where four Old Believers, including the prominent clergyman and writer Archpriest Avvakum, were burned at the stake. By the beginning of the 20th century, all restrictions against the Old Believers in the Russian Empire had been lifted.

9. Sergei Kirillov. ‘Stepan Razin’, 1985-1988

In 1670, a large-scale uprising of peasants and Cossacks led by Ataman Stepan Razin swept through the southern part of the Russian state, sparked by the enslavement of the peasantry and the authorities' desire to curb cossack freedom. The rebels took Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn, Samara and Saratov, but were ultimately defeated. On June 16, 1671, Razin was publicly quartered, his entrails fed to dogs and his body parts impaled on spears and put on public display. This was meant to serve as a warning to others.

10. Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. ‘The Streletsky Revolt’, 1862

In Spring 1682, the Miloslavskys and Naryshkins – relatives of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's first and second wives, respectively – clashed in a struggle for power. Maria Miloslavskaya's son, Ivan, was supposed to ascend the throne, but the Naryshkins deemed him too sickly and unfit of governing the state and placed then ten-year-old Peter on the throne instead. The insulted and offended Miloslavskys instigated a mutiny among the regular troops – the ‘Streltsy’ – who were already dissatisfied with the delay in their pay.

The ‘Streltsy’ succeeded in having Ivan and Peter declared co-rulers, with their elder sister, Sophia of the Miloslavsky family, serving as regent. The ‘Streltsy’ brutally murdered many of Peter's relatives and close associates before his eyes and the future emperor harbored a lifelong hatred for them.

11. Abraham Stork. ‘Russian Tsar Peter I on his Way to the Newly Built Frigate ‘Peter and Paul’’, circa 1700

In 1697, Tsar Peter I, planning a large-scale transformation of the state, embarked on a journey through Western European countries, which became known as the ‘Grand Embassy’. There, he established contacts with local monarchs, learned about science and technology, placed military orders and actively recruited skilled craftsmen of various specialties into Russian service.

See how artists depicted key events in Russian history during the Middle Ages and the 16th century.