In 1547 Ivan IV (1533-84), grandson of Ivan the Great, was crowned the first czar of all Russia (the term czar was derived from caesar) in the Kremlin's Uspensky Cathedral. In addition, Moscow became the capital of the Holy Russian Empire. Ivan ruled with a deep-seated paranoia and ruthlessness; it's said that he gouged out the eyes of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such beauty could never again be created. The czar's power became absolute when Ivan the Terrible succeeded in conquering the remaining independent principalities. He confiscated the property of the boyars (ruling-class nobles) and granted state property to those who served him. Since the soldiers were tenured to the state for life, their land grants became hereditary. The state also assigned a master to the peasants who worked the lands around an estate; this, in a sense, paved the way for serfdom. Ivan the Terrible organized the Streltsy (members of the army elite) to govern his districts and the Oprichniki (the first police force) to suppress boyar rebellions. In 1582, after the Livonian War with Poland and Sweden, Russia lost her far northern territories and her access to the Baltic. In the same year the czar also killed his son Ivan in a fit of rage. When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, Moscovy was left in a state of almost total political and economic ruin.

Time Of Troubles

Ivan the Terrible's last son, the feeble-minded Fyodor, inherited the crown. Fyodor's brother-inlaw, Boris Godunov, was elected regent and virtually governed the country. In 1598, when Fyodor died (and with him the House of Rurik), Godunov, who wasn't even a member of the higher nobility, was elected to the throne by the Imperial Assembly, which consisted mainly of the discontented gentry. Godunov's reign (1598-1605) ushered in the Time of Troubles: famines swept the land and there was increasing unrest among peasants, boyars, and Cossacks.

In 1591 , the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, Dmitri, mysteriously died. But in 1604, a false Dmitri (claiming he had escaped an assassination attempt) turned up in Poland and claimed to be the rightful heir of Moscovy. Supported by the Russian boyars, gentry (who thought the Poles respected the rights of noblemen), and a Polish army (which also had an eye on the territory), Dmitri advanced on Moscow. Boris Godunov died before Dmitri reached the city, paving the way for Dmitri to claim the throne. He was murdered shortly thereafter. A second false Dmitry attempted to gain control of the city with the remaining Polish army. Russian forces united in fear of a Polish invasion. Headed by the rugged Cossacks, this army emerged victorious. The Council of All Russia elected Mikhail Romanov, from an influential boyar family, their new czar in 1613. The Romanov Dynasty would rule over Russia for the next 150 years.

In 1652, Nikon, during the rule of Mikhail's son, Alexcei I (1645-76), became church patriarch. Nikon immediately set out to reform Russian Orthodoxy. This resulted in a violent schism within the Orthodox Church. Those in favor of reform assembled under Nikon. Those opposed called themselves the Old Believers and were led by the monk Avvakum. Those who rejected the reforms were tortured and hanged; many of the Old Believers fled into the northern woods to escape persecution.

When Alexcei's eldest son, Fyodor, died in 1682 after only six years as czar, a struggle broke out for the throne. Ivan V and his halfbrother Peter I were proclaimed joint czars, with their older sister Sophia acting as regent. When Ivan died. Peter the Great became sole ruler and emperor of all Russia. Moscow, capital of the Russian Empire for almost two centuries, was fated, as Pushkin described, "to bow to a new capital (St. Petersburg) as the Queen Dowager bows to a young Queen."