Tsars Ahoy! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grand Prince of Moscow

Between about 1280 and about 1500, the territory which we nowadays know as European Russia, was divided into several principalities, and all more or less subject to the Khan of the Golden Horde. The most important principalities were those of Moscow, Tver (some 180 km north-west of Moscow), and Vladimir (roughly 200 km to the east of Moscow). Gradually Moscow grew in importance, and by 1500 it could absorb the other principalities. Ivan III the Great, grand prince of Moscow form 1462 to 1505, was responsible for this expansion.

It was Ivan III's son, Vasily III, and grandson, Ivan IV, who consolidated this territory, and Ivan IV transformed it to a centralized absolute monarchy.

Answer: St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square was completed in 1561. It was originally built as one central church and eight surrounding churches, each with their own onion dome. Each of these churches represented a single military victory. After Ivan IV's death in 1584, the churches were enhanced by applying various colour schemes to the onion domes (from 1680 onwards), refurbishing the interior, and the addition of two more annexes.

The GUM Department Store is also on the Red Square, but was built between 1890 and 1893. It is a large shopping mall. Ostankino Tower was completed in 1967 and at that time was the tallest tower in Moscow. Cosmonauts Alley was built in memory of all the cosmonauts, starting with Yuri Gagarin who made the first trip into space in 1957.

Answer: Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov was born in 1552. He became a personal guard of Tsar Ivan IV, and Ivan's son Feodor married Boris' sister Irina. After Ivan's death Feodor became Tsar, but Feodor died without children in 1598. The succession was thus quite confused, and among much turmoil Boris ascended to the throne. The reign of Boris Godunov was quite peaceful, and Boris tried to improve the Russian education system. But Boris died in 1605 as a consequence of a serious illness.

In Mussorgsky's opera, the death of Boris is linked to the schemes of various throne pretenders claiming to be Dmitry, Feodor's younger brother (who in reality died in 1591, so before Feodor).

Prince Igor, the title character of an opera by Alexander Borodin, was a fictional person (there has been a Prince Igor born into the family of the Tsar, but the real Prince Igor was born after the premiere of the opera). Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed an opera "Eugene Onegin" with as title character a fictive nobleman. Anton Rubinstein composed an opera "The Merchant Kalashnikov", in which the title character Stepan is also fictive.

Answer: Mikhail

Mikhail Romanov was born in 1596. He was a distant relative of Tsar Feodor I. His first acts were peace treaties with Sweden and with Poland, losing territory to these both states, but gaining international acceptation as the sovereign of Russia. Meanwhile, Mikhail expanded Russia to the east by subduing large parts of Siberia. Mikhail died in 1645 and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Alexis.

Vladislav was the crown prince of Poland, and claimed to be the Russian Tsar, but his claim was not validated. Andrey was the name of the first grand princes of Vladimir, who ruled 1157-1174.

Answer: Tax on long beards

Peter the Great (1682-1721) wanted Russia to become more westernized. When he toured western Europe in search for support against the Ottoman Empire, he observed that most western European men were clean shaved (perhaps only equipped with a fashionable moustache), and wore pants and shirts. Most traditional Russian men had long beards, and wore long robes or kaftans, which hindered rapid movement, as necessary in a fight. So when Peter became the sole Russian Tsar, he imposed taxes on beards (as symbol of conservatism) and on long robes.

The tax on urine was imposed by the Roman Emperor Vespasian, as urine was extensively used in the tanning industry. The English government introduced a window tax in 1696, starting from the hypothesis that houses with more windows were greater and thus more likely belonged to wealthy people. But a serious drawback was that a building to house many workmen near the factory, was also considered as one single lodgement and thus was subject to the highest window tax. Playing cards (as well as dice) were taxed in several countries, because these forms of entertainment were considered "evil" activities - remember the proverb "Idleness is the devil's workshop".

Answer: After his patron saint

Saint-Petersburg was founded in 1703 in a marshy area where the river Neva mounds into an inlet of the Gulf of Finland. Peter the Great started the building of a large fortress and of a church on the same day, June 29 - the feast of Saints Peter and Paul - and thus also Peter's patron saint.

Peter's grandfather was Mikhail Romanov. Before the founding of Saint Petersburg, the area had a small Swedish fortress named Nyenskans, and a small town called Nyen lay around the fortress.

Answer: Elizabeth Petrovna

It was, of course, a woman who halted all executions. Most male sovereigns are not seen as merciful.

Elizabeth Petrovna was the daughter of Peter I the Great. When her father died in 1725, she saw at first her mother Catherine I on the throne for two years, then Peter's grandson Peter II, and then her cousin Anna and Anna's great-nephew Ivan VI. But when Elizabeth finally gained the throne in 1741 as the last direct descendant of Mikhail Romanov, she started an Age of Enlightenment in Russia.
Elizabeth had indeed sworn an oath not to sign any death penalties, and she kept this oath during her 21 year reign. There were of course some people dangerous to the throne who lost heir lives, but not according to death penalties signed by Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was very interested in architecture, and so she sponsored many building projects, including the third version of the Winter Palace at Saint Petersburg. The first version had been built by orders of Peter I, but just before his death he commanded to demolish the palace and built a bigger and more impressive one. And when the second version came in disuse, Elizabeth repeated her father's orders: start over to build a bigger and better place. That became the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage) as it still stands in the 21st Century.
Elizabeth never officially married, which could provoke trouble with the succession. So she appointed Peter III, one of her nephews and a grandson of Peter I, as her sole heir.

Answer: Ekaterina Velikaya

Ekaterina Velikaya translates to Catherine the Great - in textbooks she is also known as Catherine II. She was born in Prussia as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729. In 1744, she moved to Russia and married Peter III, the sole heir to Tsarina Elizabeth. She studied the Russian language thoroughly and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, and adopted the name Ekaterina Alekseeva (exactly the same first name and patronymic as Peter I's second wife).

In 1745 Catherine married Peter, and in January 1762 Tsarina Elizabeth died, whereupon Peter became Tsar Peter III and Catherine became Tsarina Catherine II.
By that time, Peter and Catherine had become unfaithful to each other, and six months after the coronation Peter was murdered. One of my sources reveals that Catherine officially declared that Peter sadly died of heavy stomach cramps, but omitted to say these cramps were caused by a knife forcefully put there by one of Catherine's lovers.

Catherine the Great continued on the path set by Tsarina Elizabeth: an age of Enlightenment, with as lasting contribution the gift of her personal art collection to the Hermitage Museum now housed in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great died in 1796, and was succeeded by Paul I - her son allegedly by Peter III, but more likely one of her many children with other lovers.

Svyataya Olga (Saint Olga) was a Grand Princess of Kiev, of Viking descent and ruled from 945 to 964. She would have brought Christianity to the then pagan Russian lands. Irina Fedorova was the wife of Feodor I and daughter-in-law to Ivan Iv. She would have ruled Rusia briefly in 1598. Anna Ivanovna was a niece of Peter the Great and ruled Russia between 1730 and 1740.

Answer: Alexander II

Of these people mentioned here, only Alexander II was Tsar of all Russians.
Yaroslav I (the Wise) was Grand Prince of Kiev between 1013 and 1018, and again between 1019 and 1054. Andrey I (the Pious) was Grand Prince of Kiev between 1157 and 1174. And Vasily II (the Dark) was Grand Prince of Moscow thrice: from 1425 to 1434, from 1435 to 1446, and finally from 1447 to 1462.

Alexander II (Liberator) was born in 1818 and ascended to the throne in 1855. While he fully supported the reactionary oppression by his predecessor Nicholas I up till 1855, he turned to a more liberal interior politic after he became Tsar. He ended the Crimean War (on unfavourable terms), and generally sought to pacify all relations with other countries.

One of his most famed decrees was the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Previously the serfs (peasants who worked on the large agricultural estates owned by nobility) were bound to the land, could not own anything, and even needed permission by their landlord to get married. The Emancipation Manifesto officially changed all this, but practical results were not so beneficial. Let's mention only one of the major problems: serfs gained their freedom, but they had to buy the land on which they would work - and previously they were not allowed to have any money. They could lend up to 75% of the price from the Russian Empire, and then had to repay this sum in 49 years with interest.

Answer: Prince Felix Yusupov

The self-proclaimed monk Grigory Rasputin was born in 1869 in a Siberian village, and grew up as a peasant. In 1897 he started traveling all round Russia, and in 1905 he was introduced to the court of Tsar Nicholas II. As he seemed instrumental in several miraculous healings of the Tsarevich Alexei (afflicted with haemophilia), Rasputin became more and more influential within the court.

But opposition rose from two sides: leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church questioned Rasputin's lifestyle, and the high nobility was convinced that Rasputin's suggestions would seriously diminish their own influence in politics.
In December 1916 Prince Felix Yusupov invited Rasputin for a feast. After trying to poison the monk, he shot Rasputin thrice, and finally his accomplices threw Rasputin in the freezing Neva river, where he was found dead the next day.

Constantine Pavlovich (1779-1831), Vassily Shuysky (1552-1612) and Simeon
Ivanovich Rurik (1317-1353) all died long before the birth of Grigory Rasputin.