Alexis Ier of Russia

See also: Alexis Ier, Alexis of Russia (homonymy)

Alexis Ier Mikhaïlovitch says “the very peaceful Tsar” (March 19th 1629 - February 8th 1676) Tsar of Russia of 1645 to 1676.

Wire of Michel III Romanov (1596-1645) and of Maria Dolgorouki (? - 1625).

In 1648 he marries Maria Miloslavskaïa (1625-1669) who gave him thirteen children:

Dmitri Alexeïevitch (October 1649 - October 1651)
Eudoxia Alexeïevna (February 1650 - March 1712)
Martha Alexeïevna (August 1652 - July 1707)
Alexis Alexeïevitch (February 1654 - January 1670)
Anna Alexeïevna (January 1655 - May 1659)
Sophia Alexeïevna (September 1657 - July 1704)
Catherine Alexeïevna (November 1658 - May 1718)
Maria Alexeïevna (January 1660 - May 1723)
Fédor III (May 1661 - April 1682)
Féodossia Alexeïevna (May 1662 - December 1713)
Simeon Alexeïevitch (April 1665 - June 1669)
Ivan V (August 1666 - January 1696)
Evdokia Alexeïevna (February 1669 - February 1669)

In 1671, Alexis 1st wife Natalia Narychkina (1651-1694) who gave him two children: Pierre Large the (1672-1725) and Natalia Alexievna (1674-1716).

Interior policy

Alexis Ier , second tsar Romanov, is however the first to have been high with the the Kremlin. More than his/her father, it is his grandfather, the métropolite Philarète (Fédor Romanov), which dealt with its education. It chose its tutor, an ambitious boyard to him name of Boris Morozov, with which it quickly bound of friendship.

When Michel III dies, in 1645, Alexis is only sixteen years old. Too much young person obviously to control, it puts Morozov at the head of its government. Its primary goal is to find a woman to him. It makes him marry Maria Miloslavski, the girl of her Minister for Finance, unanimously hated by the Muscovites. Two weeks later, he becomes the brother-in-law of the tsar by marrying his sister.

The beginning of the reign is characterized by a financial serious attack that Morozov tries to regulate by doubling the price of salt and by increasing the taxes. Already overpowered taxes, the Muscovite population revolts in 1648. The rioters manage to enter to the Kremlin and plunder the house of Morozov. They are pushed back and the riot is repressed, but the surtax on salt is removed and Morozov must move away from the capacity.

The very heavy tax pressure explains the many riots which mark out the reign of Alexis . After the Revolt of Salt , it there with the Revolt of Copper in 1663. In 1656, the government decides to strike one rouble of copper copied the court of the rouble-money. Unfortunately, rouble-coppers, easy to imitate, multiply, largely exceeding the emissions of State. More than the government, they are the counterfeiters who make excellent bargains. The court tumbles down, the prices climb. It is learned soon that Ilia Miloslavski, Minister for Finance, produced 120,000 roubles of counterfeit money. The July 25th 1663, the revolt bursts. Alexis , at the time of an exit, is attacked by rioters. The révote is repressed in blood, but rouble-copper must finally be removed in 1664.

In 1648, the same year as the Revolt of Salt , Alexis request a revision of the laws, in order to put order in the governmental system and to thus perhaps alleviate the population. The Oulojénié, the new code of laws, between in force in 1649, replacing the Soudiebnik Ivan the Terrible. It remained it until in 1833. It defends the interests of the craftsmen, the merchants and the land great landowners but not those of the controlled peasants. From now on, the serf is attached to the ground of his Master and cannot any more leave it.

Foreign policy

At the beginning of the reign, Alexis Ier , advised by the Zemski sobor, wants to avoid any bone of contention with the adjoining countries, the public purses not allowing it. However the occasions of conflict do not miss. The Sweden is always in possession of the Livonie, thus blocking the access of the Baltique to Russia. In Poland, the Cosaques Zaporogues are in open revolt against the king Jean II Casimir Vasa. They show it to persecute by all the means the orthodoxe population of the area which one day will become the Ukraine. The chief of the Cossacks, Bogdan Khmelnitski, request assistance of Russia, which remains deaf with its calls.

In 1652, Bogdan Khmelnitski decides to be caught there in another way. It goes to Moscow, meets Alexis , and asks him to attach the Ukraine to Russia, because the tsar must defend the faithful orthodoxe ones. Alexis decides to convene a sobor, which comes to the conclusion that Jean Casimir persecutes the orthodoxe ones and that Bogdan Khmelnitski and its Cossacks must be placed under the protection of the tsar.

The war is thus declared. The Russians enter to Poland, seize Smolensk, Vilnius, Korno, Grodno. On its side, Khmelnitski, to make diversion, invades the Podolie and the Volhynie. In January 1654, the split (assembled) of Zaporogues officially decides to recognize the tsar as suzerain.

Wishing to benefit from the situation, Sweden enters in its turn in war and penetrates in Polish territory. Fearing a collusion between Poland and Sweden, Alexis prefers to sign a truce with the first in 1656. According to the terms of the truce of Vilnius, Russia returns all its territories conquered, provided that Alexis succeeds Jean Casimir as king de Pologne. The Ukraine is recognized autonomous territory but remains in the Polish bosom.

Three years a larval war against Sweden follows the truce of Vilnius. It is useless because the peace of Kardis of 1659 confirms the loss of Livonie. The war begins again then against Poland. It is less brilliant than the first because the Poles defend nozzles and nails. In Ukraine, the Cosaques are not unanimous any more to want to place itself under the yoke of the tsar. The Western Ukraine (in the west of the Dniepr) is pro-Polish, the Eastern Ukraine decides openly for its fastening in Russia.

The treated of Androussovo puts an end to the war in 1667 and results in Nets profits for Moscow, which obtains Smolensk, the Sévérie, the Eastern Ukraine and Kiev (although this city is located at the west of Dniepr).

Raskol

In 1652, Alexis names Nikita Nikon with the patriarchate of Moscow. This prelate, who knew to gain the confidence of the sovereign, undertakes soon the revision of the books crowned in order to eliminate the uses which, during the last centuries, had moved away the Russian Church from the Greek Church. The tsar gives him freehand besides.

A good part of the population opposes the reform violently, seeing there a negation of the tradition and Russian specificity. Led by the archpriest Avvakoum, it forms the Schism (Raskol) of the Old Believers which name themselves the raskolnikis . Those make a point of keeping the old Russian ritual and are objected in all the possible ways to the reform of Nikone.

Repression settles. Whole families, refusing to disavow their values, are sent to roughing-hew. Nothing made there. Raskol settles durably and exists always nowadays. In 1666, the council dislocates Nikone to have questioned the principles of the autocracy but approves its reform however.

The opera Khovantchina of Modeste Moussorgski completed by Dmitri Chostakovitch is held in 1682 at the time of the revolt of the Streltsy and puts in scene Old Believers.

End of the reign

In 1669, the tsarina Maria Miloslavski dies, leaving with her husband his children, the futures Fédor III and Ivan V, as that which one day will become the regent Sophie. One year later, it Marie with Natalia Narychkina, a girl of minor nobility, which was the mother of Pierre Large the. She makes enter to the Kremlin an atmosphere of youth and cheerfulness which he had seldom known. Alexis authorizes even the behavior of plays in its palate, thing which it had prohibited until now.

The family Narychkine, it, enters in force to the Kremlin, seizing the stations - keys and relegating Miloslavski to the background. The conflict between the two clans tarnishes the last years of the reign.

The end of the reign is also obscured by the revolt of Stenka Razine. Rising, in 1667, against the too heavy loads of the tax, the cossack chief manages to transform his revolt into a true country war. In 1670, he is Master of a territory including Tsaritsyne, Astrakhan and Saratov. Beaten in October by the army of the tsar, ordered by Youri Bariatinski, it is captured shortly after and taken along to Moscow where it is quartered. Alexis is victorious but it was hot.

Assessment of the reign

The reign of Alexis is characterized by the introduction of a State which becomes more and more police officer. In foreign policy, the Russian territory increased of Smolensk and the Eastern Ukraine. In Siberia, colonization continues and the Pacific is reached in 1645.

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