Sviatoslav I (c. 943 - 972 AD)
"...Prince of Kiev... persistent campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated in the collapse of two great powers in Eastern Europe, Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire... defeated the Alans and attacked the Volga Bulgars... expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe, and the Balkans..." (Wikipedia: Sviatoslav I, 2.16.26 UTC 08:14)
Vladimir the Great (c. 958 - 1015 AD)
"...Prince of Novgorod from 970 and Grand Prince of Kiev from 978... father was Sviatoslav I of the Rurik dynasty... consolidated his realm to the Baltic Sea and solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarians, Baltic tribes and Eastern nomads..." (Wikipedia: Vladimir the Great, 2.8.26 UTC 19:22)
Yaroslav the Wise (c. 978 - 1054 AD)
"...Grand Prince of Kiev... Prince of Novgorod... Prince of Rostov... son of Vladimir the Great... war for the Kievan throne against his half-brother Sviatopolk... alliances with Scandinavian countries and weakening Byzantine influence on Kiev." (Wikipedia: Yaroslav the Wise, 2.17.26 UTC 00:28)
Daniel of Galicia (1201-1264)
"...Prince of Galicia... Volhynia... Grand Prince of Kiev and King of Ruthenia... Romanovichi branch of the Rurikids... restored control over Galicia... managed to withstand the Mongol invasions..." (Wikipedia: Daniel of Galicia, 2.18.26 UTC 13:56)
Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263)
"...Prince of Novgorod... Grand Prince of Vladimir... victories over Swedish invaders in the Battle of the Neva... and German crusaders in the Battle on the Ice... agreed to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, which allowed him to preserve the Eastern Orthodox Church..." (Wikipedia: Alexander Nevsky, 1.29.26 UTC 13:41)
Ivan III of Russia (1440-1505)
"...Grance Prince of Moscow and all Russia... renovated the Moscow Kremlin... credited with ending the dominance of the Tatars over Russia... victory over the Great Horde in 1480 formally restored its independence... began using the title tsar..." (Wikipedia: Ivan III of Russia, 1.22.26 UTC 06:10)
Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584)
"...Grand Prince of Mosco and all Russia... first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia... grandson of Ivan III... establishing the first Russian standing army, the streltsy... bringing the entire length of the Volga river under Russian control... Livonian War of 1558 to 1583... autocratic control over the Russian nobility, which he violently purged... massacre of Novgorod by the oprichniki and the burning of Mosco by the Tartars... murdered his eldest son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich..." (Wikipedia: Ivan the Terrible, 2.8.26 UTC 17:47)
Alexis of Russia (1629-1676)
"...Tsar of all Russia... House of Romanov... sided closely with Patriarch Nikon during the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church... several wars with Iran, Poland and Sweden, as well as internal instabilities such as the Salt Riot in Moscow and the Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin..." (Wikipedia: Alexis of Russia, 11.30.25 UTC 16:37)
Peter the Great (1672-1725)
"...Tsar of all Russia... and first Emperor of Russia... lengthy wars against the Ottoman and Swedish empires... Azov campaigns were followed by the foundation of the Russian Navy... victory in the Great Northern War... annexed a significant portion of the eastern Baltic coastline... introduced the Julian calendar... promoted industrialization... administrative reforms..." (Wikipedia: Peter the Great, 2.12.26 UTC 18:37)
Elizabeth of Russia (1709-1762)
"...Empress of Russia... numerous construction projects and her strong opposition to Prussian policies... last person on the agnatic line of the Romanovs... eldest daughter of Tsar Peter the Great... brought about a remarkable Age of Enlightenment in Russia... University of Moscow... War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)." (Wikipedia: Elizabeth of Russia, 1.5.26 UTC 13:54)
Catherine the Great (1729-1796)
"...Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796... coup d'état against her husband, Peter III... founding of many new cities, universities and theatres... Poland, which was eventually partitioned... Crimean Khanate was annexed... Russo-Turkish War... colonized the territories of New Russia along the coast of the Black and Azov seas... colonized Alaska... Pugachev's Rebellion of Cossacks..." (Wikipedia: Catherine the Great, 2.14.26 UTC 11:28)
Alexander I (1777-1825)
"...Emperor of Russia... first king of Congress Poland... Grand Duke of Finland... changed Russia's position towards France four times between 1804 and 1812... Napoleon's invasion descended into a catastrophe for the French... gained territory in Finland and Poland... formed the Holy Alliance to suppress the revolutionary movements in Europe..." (Wikipedia: Alexander I, 2.10.26 UTC 04:42)
Nicholas I (1796-1855)
"...Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland... failed Decemberist revolt... helping to create an independent Greek State... Russian conquest of the Caucasus... Armenia and Azerbaijan... Russo-Persian War... Russo-Turkish War... crushed the November Uprising in Poland... aided Austria during the Hungarian Revolution... Crimean War with disastrous results..." (Wikipedia: Nicholas I, 2.14.26 UTC 16:34)
Alexander II (1818-1881)
"...Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland... abolished Russian serfdom in 1861... campaigned into the Far East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia... sold Alaska to the United States... Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878... Amur Annexation... approved Russian military plans on the Caucasian front that culminated in the Circassian genocide... Polish uprising in January 1863..." (Wikipedia: Alexander II, 2.17.26 UTC 17:09)
Nicholas II (1868-1918)
"...Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland... final chapter of the Romanov dynasty... As a constitutional monarch, he resisted political reform and retained autocratic control, despite the establishment of the Duma... defeat in the Russo-Japanese War... turmoil of the 1905 Revolution... the February Revolution forced his abdication... executed in Yekaterinburg..." (Wikipedia: Nicholas II, 2.16.26 UTC 15:42)
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
"...first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917... Bolsheviks' founder... won the Russian Civil War and created a one-party state under the Communist Party... embraced revolutionary socialist politics... After the February Revolution of 1917 ousted Tsar Nicholas II... played a leading role in the October Revolution... abolished private ownership of land, nationalized major industry and banks... suppressed opposition in the Red Terror..." (Wikipedia: Vladimir Lenin, 2.13.26 UTC 19:13)
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
"...key figure int he 1905 Revolution, October Revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929... initially sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin's Bolsheviks in the party's 1903 schism, but declared himself non-factional in 1904... negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which Russia withdrew from World War I... expelled from the Politburo in 1926... assassinated in 1940 in Mexico City..." (Wikipedia: Leon Trotsky,
Joseph Stalin (1878-1953)
"...led the Soviet Union... served as a member of the Politburo... After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin won the leadership struggle... famine in 1932-1933 which killed millions, including the Holodomor in Ukraine... executed hundreds of thousands of his real and perceived political opponents in the Great Purge... signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany... at the start of World War II. Germany broke the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941... repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945..." (Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin, 2.18.26 UTC 02:44)
Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)
"...First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964... campaign of de-Stalinization... presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962... successful launching of Sputnik in 1957... 1956 Suez Crisis, 1957 Syrian Criss, 1960 U-2 incident..." (Wikipedia: Nikita Khrushchev, 2.13.26 UTC 19:32)
Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982)
"...General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964... while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he greatly increased the Soviet nuclear arsenal... increase in repression and censorship... referred to as the Era of Stagnation." (Wikipedia: Leonid Brezhnev, 2.19.26 UTC 04:04)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022)
"...last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991... In 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary... withdrew troops from the Soviet-Afghan War... summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War... policy of glasnost ('openness') and demokratizatsiya ('democratization')... perestroika ('restructuring')..." (Wikipedia: Mikhail Gorbachev, 2.15.26 UTC 18:54)
Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007)
"...President of Russia from 1991 to 1999... instrumental in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union... oversaw the transition of Russia's command economy into a capitalist market economy... constitutional crisis emerged in 1993... troops loyal to Yeltsin stormed the parliament building and stopped an armed uprising... First Chechen War, War of Dagestan, and Second Chechen War..." (Wikipedia: Boris Yeltsin, 2.13.26)
Vladimir Putin (1952 - now)
"...President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008... Prime Minister of Russia form 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012... worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer... conflict against Chechen separatists... Russo-Georgia War... annexed Crimea... launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine... political system has been transformed into an authoritarian dictatorship..." (Wikipedia: Vladimir Putin, 2.18.26 UTC 20:52)
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