Michael of Russia

Tsar of Russia (1613–1645)

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Lived 1596–1645, aged 49

Wikipedia
68 languages
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Era
1596–1645
Aged 49

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The teenager plucked from a monastery in 1613 to end Russia's dynastic chaos became the founder of a ruling house that would last three centuries. His election by the Zemsky Sobor closed the Time of Troubles and launched the Romanovs.

Biography

About

Michael Romanov was born in 1596, son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov and Xenia Shestova, and first cousin once removed of Feodor I through his great-aunt Anastasia Romanovna. When the Zemsky Sobor elected him tsar in 1613, he inherited a fractured state bleeding territory and legitimacy. The Ingrian and Polish–Muscovite Wars ended in 1617 and 1618, securing Russian independence at the cost of western lands. In 1634 the Treaty of Polyanovka finally forced Polish king Władysław IV Vasa to abandon his claim to the Russian throne. While the west contracted, the east exploded: Cossacks pushed deep into…

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