Russian Empire Россійская Имперія Российская Империя Rossiyskaya Imperiya | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1721–1917 | |||||||||||
Motto: "Съ нами Богъ!" S' nami Bog! ("God is with us!") | |||||||||||
Anthem: "Боже, Царя храни!" Bozhe Tsarya khrani! (1833–1917) ("God Save the Tsar!") Other used anthems:
| |||||||||||
Capital | Saint Petersburg[b] (1721–1728; 1730–1917) Moscow (1728–1730)[2] | ||||||||||
Largest city | Saint Petersburg | ||||||||||
Official languages | Russian • French (widely used among the upper classes until the 19th century)[3] | ||||||||||
Recognised languages | Polish, German (in Baltic provinces), Finnish, Swedish, Chinese (in Dalian) | ||||||||||
Religion (1897) |
| ||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Russian | ||||||||||
Government | Unitary absolute monarchy (1721–1906) Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy[5] (1906–1917) | ||||||||||
Emperor | |||||||||||
• 1721–1725 (first) | Peter I | ||||||||||
• 1894–1917 (last) | Nicholas II | ||||||||||
• 1810–1812 (first) | Nikolai Rumyantsev[c] | ||||||||||
• 1917 (last) | Nikolai Golitsyn[d] | ||||||||||
Legislature | Governing Senate[6] | ||||||||||
State Council (1810–1917) | |||||||||||
State Duma (1905–1917) | |||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
10 September 1721 | |||||||||||
• Proclaimed | 2 November 1721 | ||||||||||
4 February 1722 | |||||||||||
26 December 1825 | |||||||||||
3 March 1861 | |||||||||||
18 October 1867 | |||||||||||
Jan 1905 – Jul 1907 | |||||||||||
30 October 1905 | |||||||||||
• Constitution adopted | 6 May 1906 | ||||||||||
8–16 March 1917 | |||||||||||
• Proclamation of the Republic | 14 September 1917 | ||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
1866[7][8] | 22,800,000 km2 (8,800,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||
• 1897 | 125,640,021 | ||||||||||
Currency | Russian ruble | ||||||||||
|
The Russian Empire, also known as Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Empire or Imperial Russia, and sometimes simply as Russia,[e][f] was a country in Europe and Asia from November 1721 until its dissolution in March 1917. When the Russian Empire collapsed, it became the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR), as part of the Soviet Union.
By the late 19th century, it covered about 22,800,000 square kilometres (8,800,000 sq mi) making it the third-largest empire in history.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).
After all, Orthodoxy was both the majority faith in the Russian Empire – approximately 70 percent subscribed to this faith in the 1897 census–and the state religion.