Alexis of Russia

Alexis Mikhailovich became Tsar of all Russia in 1645 at sixteen, the second Romanov to hold the throne. He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority, and in 1649 his council passed the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, tightening the bond between autocracy and the lower nobility. He stood with Patriarch Nikon through the schism that tore the Russian Orthodox Church apart over liturgical reforms. His reign brought wars with Iran, Poland, and Sweden - left-bank Ukraine and Smolensk were annexed from Poland - but also the Salt Riot in Moscow and the Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin in the south. When he died in 1676, Russia stretched across 8.1 million square kilometers.