List of Russian monarchs

This is a list of all reigning monarchs in the history of Russia. The list begins with the semi-legendary prince Rurik of Novgorod, sometime in the mid-9th century, and ends with Nicholas II, who abdicated in 1917, and was executed with his family in 1918. Two dynasties have ruled Russia: the Rurikids (862–1598) and Romanovs (from 1613).
The vast territory known as Russia covers an area that has been ruled by various polities since the 9th century, including Kievan Rus', the Grand Principality of Vladimir, the Grand Principality of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, and the sovereigns of these polities have used a range of titles. Some of the earliest titles include knyaz and veliky knyaz, which mean "prince" and "grand prince" respectively, and have sometimes been rendered as "duke" and "grand duke" in Western literature. After the centralized Russian state was formed, this was followed by the title of tsar, meaning "caesar", which was disputed to be the equal of either a king or emperor, and finally the title of emperor.
According to Article 59 of the 1906 Russian constitution, the Russian emperor held several dozen titles, each one representing a region which the monarch governed.
In traditional historiography, the first Russian monarch is considered to be the semi-legendary Rurik, the first prince of Novgorod.
Rurik's successor Oleg moved his capital to Kiev, founding a state denoted in modern historiography as Kievan Rus' (Russian: Киевская Русь) or Ancient Rus' (Russian: Древняя Русь, Древнерусское государство). Over the next several centuries, the most important titles were grand prince of Kiev and prince of Novgorod, whose holder (often the same person) could claim hegemony.
The gradual disintegration of Kievan Rus' began in the 11th century, after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. The position of the grand prince was weakened by the growing influence of regional clans. In 1097, the Council of Liubech formalized the feudal nature of the lands. The Liubech conference resulted in the creation of a federative structure, with the different principalities within the structure remaining bound to Kiev as the center of the state. This structure allowed for some of the principalities to develop into semi-independent polities, with conflict between the principalities intensifying in the 12th century.
After Mstislav's death in 1132, Kievan Rus' fell into recession and a rapid decline, marking the end of a unified state. The throne of Kiev became an object of struggle between various territorial associations of Rurikid princes in the decades to come, despite Kiev losing almost all of its former glory and power.
In March 1169, a coalition of princes led by the grand prince of Vladimir, Andrey Bogolyubsky, sacked Kiev and forced the ruling prince, Mstislav II, to flee to Volhynia. Andrei appointed his brother, Gleb, as the prince of Kiev, while Andrei himself continued to rule his realm from Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma. Andrei styled himself as the grand prince of Vladimir, although the less important prince in Kiev would still bear the title of grand prince; the last prince to bear the title of grand prince of Kiev was Michael of Chernigov, who died in 1246, while the grand princes of Vladimir retained their title. The other future grand princely titles were derived from the grand princely title of Vladimir.
From that time onwards, Vladimir became one of the most influential principalities. In the south-west, the principality of Galicia-Volhynia began to emerge as a local successor to Kiev. Following the Mongol invasions, three powerful states emerged: the Grand Principality of Vladimir in the north-east, which would evolve into the Grand Principality of Moscow and become the center of the autocratic Russian state; the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia in the south-west, which was later annexed by Poland and Lithuania; and the Novgorod Republic in the north.
By the 12th century, the Grand Principality of Vladimir became the dominant principality in the north-east, adding its name to those of Novgorod and Kiev, culminating with the rule of Alexander Nevsky. In 1169, Andrey I's son sacked the city of Kiev, but Andrey instead stayed in Vladimir and made it his capital, while taking the title of grand prince to claim primacy, leading to political power being shifted to the north-east.
Following the Mongol invasions, the principalities started paying tribute to the Golden Horde (the so-called "Tatar yoke"). Until the 15th century, Russian princes received a yarlyk from the khan; it was not until about 1480 that the Mongol domination of Russia formally ended.
After the death of Alexander Nevsky, the Grand Principality of Vladimir split into various appanage principalities, with Alexander's youngest son Daniel being the first permanent ruler of Moscow. The territory of Vladimir proper was received by the Horde to one of the appanage princes, who performed the enthronement ceremony in Vladimir, but remained to live and reign in his own principality. By the end of the century, only three cities – Moscow, Tver, and Nizhny Novgorod – still contended for the title of grand prince of Vladimir. The grand princely title occasionally reverted to Tver, but in the end, the Moscow branch of Rurikids established by Daniel successfully claimed the title for themselves exclusively.
Ivan I was able to collect tribute from the Russian princes to the Golden Horde and his reign saw a significant strengthening of Moscow as Ivan increased its wealth and purchased more land, including entire appanages from bankrupt princes. Ivan was also able to convince the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to move to Moscow, and Vladimir remained in the hands of the princes of Moscow. Ivan's son Simeon was the first prince to adopt the style of grand prince of Moscow and Vladimir.
The princes of Moscow and Suzdal entered a struggle for the grand princely title following the death of Ivan II, with Ivan's son Dmitry Ivanovich (later known as Dmitry Donskoy) taking the throne from Dmitry Konstantinovich in 1363. The Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 marked a turning point, with the prince of Moscow seen as the dominant prince.
After the death of Dmitry Donskoy, the throne of Vladimir was passed to the prince of Moscow, thus usurping the right of the khan to appoint the grand prince. The grand princes of Moscow later adopted the title of sovereign and grand prince of all Russia, with the unification of other principalities with Moscow cultivating a sense of an imperial role for the grand prince as the ruler of all Russia.
The Russians began to exert independence from the Mongols, culminating with Ivan III ceasing tribute to the Horde, effectively declaring his independence. Ivan III also greatly expanded his domain with the annexations of other principalities; his son Vasili III completed the task of uniting all of Russia by annexing the last few independent states in the 1520s.
Princely succession in medieval Russia proceeded along the lines of the eldest son usually being the being chosen, with the condition that substitution did not take place if the father died before the grandfather. The grand princes of Moscow, once they entrenched their status as the supreme prince with regard to other Russian princes, typically left a will in which they appointed their eldest son as heirs to the title of grand prince; this did not fully conform to traditional succession practices, and in 1497, Ivan III went one step further by crowning his grandson Dmitry as co-ruler, bypassing his son Vasily, who, according to the traditional system, would have been the heir, although in the end Vasily was made co-ruler and this arrangement did not work out. Ivan III also used the title of tsar in his foreign correspondence, but it would be his grandson Ivan IV who would be crowned as the first Russian tsar.
Ivan IV ("the Terrible") assumed the title of tsar in 1547. Succession was treated in an unorthodox manner under Ivan IV, who, in 1575, formally transferred his powers to Simeon Bekbulatovich, a Tatar prince who had been baptized and given his own principality; Ivan returned to the throne the following year. Ivan was succeeded in 1584 by his only surviving son, Feodor, who died without an heir, marking the end of the Rurik dynasty.
In 1581, Ivan the Terrible killed his firstborn son Ivan Ivanovich in a fit of rage, leaving only Feodor I to succeed him. Feodor died childless, marking the end of the Rurik dynasty and the start of a succession crisis during a period known as the Time of Troubles. The first non-Rurikid tsar was Feodor's brother-in-law and regent, the influent boyar Boris Godunov, elected by the Zemsky Sobor (feudal parliament).
Devastated by famine, rule under Boris descended into anarchy. There followed a series of impostors, known as the False Dmitrys, each claiming to be Feodor I's long deceased younger brother; however, only the first impostor ever took the capital and sat on the throne. A distant Rurikid cousin, Vasily Shuysky, also took power for a time. During this period foreign powers deeply involved themselves in Russian politics, under the leadership of the Vasa monarchs of Sweden and Poland-Lithuania, including Sigismund III Vasa and his son Władysław. As a child, Władysław was even chosen as tsar by the council of aristocracy, though he was prevented by his father from formally taking the throne. The Time of Troubles is considered to have ended with the election of Michael Romanov to the throne in February 1613, thereby establishing the Romanov dynasty.
The Time of Troubles came to a close with the election of Michael Romanov as tsar in 1613. Michael officially reigned as tsar, though his father, the patriarch Philaret (died 1633) initially held de facto power. However, Michael's descendants would rule Russia, first as tsars and later as emperors, until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Michael was succeeded by his only son, Alexis, who in turn was succeeded by his eldest son of his first marriage, Feodor.
Following the death of Feodor, there were two candidates for the throne: his brother Ivan and his half-brother Peter, who were fifteen and nine years old, respectively. Each candidate was supported by a competing clan, the Miloslavskys and Naryshkins. At first, the throne was given to Peter, but as a result of the streltsy uprising in Moscow, a compromise solution was found and both Peter and Ivan were made co-monarchs in 1682, with Ivan's older sister Sophia ruling as regent. Ivan was considered the senior tsar and Peter the junior tsar; however, due to Ivan being considered unfit for the role, Peter was able to remove his half-sister Sophia from power and take control of the throne at the age of 17 with the assistance of another streltsy uprising in 1689. Peter then became the sole monarch in 1696 upon the death of Ivan.
The Russian Empire was proclaimed by Peter the Great in 1721 following the creation of the imperial title in the aftermath of the Great Northern War. Russia's territorial gains and increased standing as a key player on the European scene allowed it to upgrade its official status from tsardom to empire. The full imperial title proposed in 1721 to Peter was "Father of the Fatherland, Peter the Great, All-Russian Emperor". At his accession as the sole monarch of Russia in 1696, Peter held the same title as his father, Alexis: "Great Lord Tsar and Grand Prince, Autocrat of Great, Small and White Russia". By 1710, he had styled himself as "Tsar and All-Russian Emperor", but it was not until 1721 that the imperial title became official. The adjective "All-Russian" had been increasingly used to refer to the territories of modern-day Belarus and Ukraine as well.
Peter issued a decree in 1722 in which the sovereign would be free to appoint a successor, referring to a number of historical precedents, including the conduct of Ivan III, who initially chose his grandson as his successor. This was later detailed in Pravda voli Monarshei v opredelenii Naslednika Derzhavy Sovei ("The righteousness of the monarch's will in appointing the successor in his reign"), a major political treatise written in its defense, which was only circulated widely following Peter's death, and argued on the basis of an abundance of examples from both biblical and secular history that it was fully correct for a ruler to appoint his own successor without being bound by traditional family succession rules. Peter died in 1725 without naming a successor.
Officially, Russia would be ruled by the Romanov dynasty until the Russian Revolution of 1917. However, direct male descendants of Michael Romanov came to an end in 1730 with the death of Peter II of Russia, grandson of Peter the Great. The throne passed to Anna, a niece of Peter the Great, and after the brief rule of her niece's infant son Ivan VI, the throne was seized by Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great. Elizabeth would be the last of the direct Romanovs to rule Russia. Elizabeth declared her nephew, Peter, to be her heir. Peter, who would rule as Peter III, was a German prince (with a Romanov mother) of the House of Holstein-Gottorp before arriving in Russia to assume the imperial title. He and his German wife Sophia (who had distant Rurikid ancestry) changed their name to Romanov upon inheriting the throne. Peter was ill-liked, and he was assassinated within six months of assuming the throne, in a coup orchestrated by his wife, who became Empress in her own right and ruled as Catherine the Great. Their son Paul I was the first monarch who had both Rurikid and Romanov blood. Following the confused successions of the descendants of Peter the Great, Paul I established clear succession laws which governed the rules of primogeniture over the imperial throne until the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
The rights of Kirill Vladimirovich and his heirs to the imperial throne of Russia have been repeatedly questioned following his marriage with Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The principles laid down by Paul I in the Act of Succession 1797 turned out to be not completely flawlessly formulated, and, as a result, the interpretation of these is not always obvious, and Russia now has no indisputable contender for the throne. Moreover, for more than a hundred years the throne itself has ceased to exist. Nevertheless, when in 1915 Nicholas II, before the lack of successible grand dukes, allowed them to retain their personal rights, as it had happened in practice with Alexander II after his second and morganatic marriage, Kirill Vladimirovich's issue was never deemed to be considered morganatic, nor were they demoted from grand dukes to mere princes.