Ranking Every Russian Tsar From Worst to Best

this video is a result of a poll i've conducted and this was a choice that won out the russians ours some positions on this list might be genuinely surprising others will be completely predictable before we start though there's one honorable mention and that is ivan iii otherwise known as ivan the great he is not on this list on a technicality as he was never officially a czar although with its style himself as such his wars of conquest were the key behind the unification of russia and he is one of the country's most important rulers also let me just give a shout out to the wonderful russian history podcast by gareth calcum and i'm sorry if i'm butchering the pronunciation as it was extremely useful to fill in a lot of gaps of russian history that are not quite as popular here in the west this to tell you only those who were officially czar are on this list which goes from ivan terrible all the way to nicholas ii now here we go by the way consider subscribing 25 peter the third you start your reign in a war and your own forces are just about to defeat the enemy you literally don't have to do anything this was a situation when peter iii ascended to the throne he was a german who could hardly speak russian but that clearly wasn't going to deter him from doing his duty as king and properly finished the war against prussia naturally he ordered these troops back to russia and concluded a peace treaty with prussia where his country would win nothing yes he did exactly this to say the russians were angry with this is kind of an understatement he ended up being overthrown by his wife whom we'll see much later quite frankly even if peter iii was quite progressive throughout his short reign that doesn't excuse being overthrown within the first year no innovative ideas will ever fix being so inept you can't even keep yourself on the throne 24 peter ii apparently the failed version of peter the great down to even the name he had width but displayed absolutely no interest in ruling and when your country has a culture of having an absolute ruler making all the important decisions this means the state itself will stop functioning especially at all the important affairs luckily for russia he only lasted 3 years 23 nicholas ii well where do i begin with this cavalcade of screw-ups i mean it all started quite literally with this coronation where over a thousand people died then you have the disastrous russo-japanese war the bloody sunday the revolutions his difficult relationship with the duma falling under the sway of rasputin there's a lot of screw-ups it isn't surprising he was the last russian czar a biased man who admitted he wasn't ready to rule russia but has given the role by god would give his best shot well his aim sucks 22 nicholas the first to put it bluntly a disaster for russia although his reign saw some degree of success in the expansion of russian influence it also led to the disastrous crimean war along with all the consequences of turning russia into a pariah state all the while domestically resisting what was by now much needed reforms internally the russian state was nothing if corrupt and inefficient his successor would spend much of his reign trying to do what should have been done in this one 21 theodore the bell ringer the child of ivan the terrible theodore the first feels the obligatory insane monarch every country apparently just has to have the last of the rurikit dynasty he's known as the bell ringer because he wandered around aimlessly in russia visiting churches and ordering bells be wrong he was apparently a good natured man who took little to no interest in actually ruling the country leaving state affairs to his minister and eventual successor boris godanov 20 ivan the sixth proclaimed emperor when he was two months old after about a year he was overthrown by his cousin and he would spend the rest of his life in captivity dying at the age of 23. some people never stood a chance 19 constantine i honestly didn't know if i should include him or not considering one he renounced his claims to the throne and two though addressed as such he never actually became the russian emperor oh well he's here just in passing 18. theodore the second star of russia during the times of troubles and lasted what a month and a half he was well educated and apparently intelligent but was murdered seventeen the false dimitri some guy who claimed to be the son of ivan the terrible and actually managed to become tsar he is the only imposter to have ever sit on the throne of a major power it just had to be russia didn't it backed by the polls he was hated by the entirety of russia and killed after 11 months on the throne 16 vasily iv the tsar after the false dmitry though throughout his four year reign he was never actually recognized as such by well everybody the only reason he lasted as long as he did was because there was nobody who could replace him he was eventually deposed and made a monk which given the possibilities it's not too bad of an ending for him considering he could have very well ended up being murdered when the romanovs assumed power facility iv was posthumously recognized as illegal tsar 15. catherine the first the first female czar on the list but certainly not the last also she's not to be confused with catherine the great she wasn't a bad ruler per se but if you pay attention to the years you'll realize very quickly why she's so low on this list her reign is really short well that and the fact she was controlled by her advisors and though her administration enacted decent sensible policies she wasn't particularly brilliant herself 14. ivan v having serious mental and physical issues ivan was never the man in charge with power being held by his sister sophia who was a the factor ruler until peter was old enough to demand power ivan supported his brother who ceased power and would completely overshadow ivan who would die at the age of 29 13. paul the first the son and successor of catherine the great he was nothing like his mother which is unsurprising considering he spent nearly his entire life under her shadow his pro-german beliefs were what eventually got him assassinated paving the way for alexander the first ultimately he is just a transitional czar a small gap from one great ruler to another 12 alexander the peacemaker the reactionary counterparts to alexander ii he is known as the peacemaker due to the fact russia fought no wars while he ruled ultimately his reactionary policies gave him immense power but ensured the survival of the russian monarchy would be very shaky heading into the 20th century furthermore while he constantly dated power for himself he wasn't very adept at using it eleventh theodore iii another brief ruler in this case a competent one who opened some projects like the slavic creek latin academy the first high education establishment in moscow as well as a few other reforms he is also noted for the impressive atmosphere he instilled in the courts then boris got enough an ambitious noble crown czar upon the death of theodore the bellringer he was by all accounts a pretty popular and reasonable ruler of course he already was the tsar of russia in all but name before then his reign was pretty brief and once he died the period known as the time of troubles began alex is the quietest known as the quietest or the peaceful due to his kind and friendly behavior alexis the first had that one distinct trait that's almost necessary in great leaders the ability to identify talent that's a highly rated ability and the reason alexis isn't higher is due to another personality trait of his and that is being somewhat passive as well as his military campaigns one against the persians that went badly one against the polls that was successful and won against the swedes that went nowhere besides that his reign saw military reforms and some crushed rebellions 8. anna ivanovna well here's an example of someone who was hated by the russian people and yet be an overall decent czar as the russian empress hannah's reign saw the establishment of major projects like the cadet corps or the russian academy of science and an overall much-needed westernization the problem was all this was achieved through the emergence of influence of western foreigners in her court which alienated both the russian nobility and the russian people in general ultimately anna was not a good person not liked by the people she ruled but wasn't a bad empress 7. michael the first the ruler whose ascension marked the end of the time of troubles the verse of the romanovs his lengthy reign saw the greatest territorial expansion in russian history largely due to the continued conquests of siberia remarkable considering the very shaky position he had at the start of his reign where he had to give up lands to both poland and sweden in order to gain some much needed breathing room also he is somewhat unusual in the sense he became a ruler all the while his father was very much alive so much so the treaty with poland actually brought his father back to russia who then proceeded to pretty much rule the country despite his son actually being bizarre this was something michael did giving authority to those closest to him sometimes they were capable men like his father other times they were massively corrupt 6. ivan the terrible you might have expected this name to have popped up in the earlier entries but ivan the terrible is an often misunderstood character in history well not the part about being a mentally unstable tyrant that part is absolutely true at least by the end of his reign but the first russian tsar was actually one of the better russian rulers ivan began his reign with major reforms such as revising the law code founding a standing army and establishing several councils just to name a few things his reigns saw successful campaigns as well conquering kazan and militarily defeating the ottomans in the first ever russell turkish war his campaigns against livonia did end up being a disaster however the thing about ivan the terrible is his wife died and ivan at the time thought she was murdered with everybody thinking it was just paranoia but her remains have been examined in the 20th century and very high amounts of mercury those consistent with mercury poisoning were found in her hair and you know the old saying it's not paranoia if they really ought to get you well that was ivan after his wife died he just lost it and from there on massive persecutions tyranny and even the city of novgorod being massacred followed also ivan the terrible is an awful translation and it leads many people to error he is known in russia as ivan grozny which translates more accurately into ivan the fearsome or ivan diaz-inspiring 5. elizabeth petrovna the daughter of peter the great elizabeth wasn't anything if ruthless she sees the throne from the infant ivan vi after all but she was a remarkable empress bringing the age of enlightenment to russia establishing its first university her reign also saw russia getting embroiled in both the war of austrian succession as well as the seven years war where russian troops enjoyed victories against friday the great but she died before any deal could be settled ultimately while great her reign is really a precursor to that of catherine the great as elizabeth built the building blocks necessary in order for katherine to shine four alexander the blessed the second half of his reign actually prevents him from competing for the number one position though initially liberal he became increasingly conservative religious and withdrawn to the point historian urban nichols compares him to a schizophrenic his reign is marked of course by the napoleonic wars where he and his forces were repeatedly defeated by napoleon including one particularly humiliating defeat at austerlitz where napoleon tricked him but alexander the first learned from his mistakes and was instrumental in the allied efforts against napoleon though the french emperor made him a fool this is the man who eventually outwitted napoleon notably by allowing moscow to be taken all the while he was in saint petersburg waiting for the winter to come for his efforts alexander the first was hailed as the savior of europe three alexander the liberator the great reformer alexander ii is mostly known for his wide reforms which were an absolute necessity by the time he became tsar from emancipation of the serfs to the liberalization of industry and commerce changes in judicial administration military reforms less censorship economic modernization and i could go on and on he was criticized by the liberals in his country for not going quickly enough but truth be told the amount of reforms he made is staggering this is what killed him in the end alexander ii was always stuck between a rock and a hard place and as many of his reforms were not really that popular among the country's elite and though some of them were increasingly realizing what needed to be done they weren't enough sooner or later one of two things were going to happen either alexander ii was going to anger the elites or he was going to anchor the liberals and what happened was the latter as such when the assassination attempts began alexander ii sought to depower the liberals in order to preserve himself it didn't matter of course he was assassinated anyway 2 catherine the greats annexing much of the ukraine crimea the caucasus belarus and lithuania the territorial expansion of russia throughout her reign already cements her as one of the best rulers russia ever had she made public health a priority notably having herself and her son inoculated against smallpox in a public promotion of the treatment she focused heavily on economic and finance though she did not always succeed on that front of course one thing catherine is famous for besides all the conquests that is is the development of the arts and culture throughout her reign as she held western european philosophies and beliefs which isn't surprising given she was german she sought to modernize education in russia one peter the great some dilemmas are too obvious like picking who's the best russians are it took me about three seconds to decide and no further information really made me change my mind it was peter as it should be the man who sought to make russia in his enlightened image to the point he actually implemented a tax on long beards just so the nobility could look more western peter turned russia into a major power and this was achieved through the defeat of another power in this case sweden as peter defeated the famous or infamous depending on who you're asking charles xii in the great northern war with this he ended swedish uncontested control over the baltic and laid the groundwork for the imperial navy also the name may make it obvious but he found out saint petersburg hope you enjoyed this little video comment 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Channel: Spectrum

Views: 235,587

Keywords: Russia, Russian Tsar, Tsar, History, Russian History, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas II, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander II, Alexander I, Alexander III, Nicholas I, Peter III, Boris Godunov, Feodor I, The Bellringer, Great Northern War, False Dmitry, Time of Troubles, Michael I, Romanov, Rurikid, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Elizabeth Petrovna

Id: SQgVaEa9KkA

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 01 2022