| A | B |
|---|
| Ivan III (The Great) | claimed descent from Rurik; freed Russia from the Mongols after 1462; took the title of tsar or Caesar |
| Ivan IV (The Terrible) | confirmed the power of tsarist autocracy by attacking the authority of boyars (aristocrats); continued expansion; established contacts with Western commerce and culture; ruled with a bloody iron fist |
| Cossacks | peasants recruited to migrate to newly seized lands; combined agriculture with military conquests; spurred more frontier conquests and settlements |
| Time of Troubles | followed death of Ivan IV without heir; boyars tried to use vacuum of power to reestablish their authority; ended with selection of Michael Romanov as tsar in 1613 |
| Romanov Dynasty | dynasty elected in 1613 at end of Time of Troubles; ruled until 1917 |
| Peter I (The Great) | son of Alexis Romanov; ruled from 1689-1725; continued absolutism and conquest; had selective Westernization |
| Secret Police | set up by Peter I to prevent dissent and supervise the democracy |
| Selective Westernization | policy of Peter I and Catherine to introduce only parts of Western society to Russia and to keep others traditional |
| Catherine the Great | ruled after the assassination of her husband; gave appearance of enlightened rule; selective Westernization; maintained nobility as service aristocracy by granting them new power over peasants |
| Pugachev Rebellion | led by Cossack Emelian Pugachev, who claimed to be legitimate tsar; eventually crushed; typical of peasant unrest; Pugachev’s body was quartered and placed in the four corners of the empire as reminder of what happened to dissenters |
| Partition of Poland | division of Polish territory among Russia, Austria, and Prussia in 1772,1793, and 1795; eliminated Poland as independent state; part of expansion of Russian influence over eastern Europe |
| Serfdom | very close to slavery; serfs worked the land for the landlords; way for the government to satisfy nobility and regulate peasants |
