Alexei Mikhailovich (29 March 1629-8 February 1676) was Tsar of all Russia from 12 July 1645 to 8 February 1676, succeeding Mikhail and preceding Feodor III.
Biography[]
Alexei Mikhailovich was born in Moscow, Tsardom of Russia in 1629, the son of Tsar Michael of Russia and Tsaritsa Eudoxia Streshneva. He acceded to the throne at the age of 16 on his father's death in 1645, and he was tutored by the pro-Western boyar Boris Morozov. Alexei pursued a peaceful foreign policy, securing a truce with Poland-Lithuania and avoiding war with the Ottoman Turks. In 1648, he married Maria Miloslavskaya, while Morozov married her sister. Morozov conducted several reforms before Muscovites rose against his alleged corruption and sorcery, forcing the Tsar to exile him following the Salt Riot. Alexei reformed his army after 1648, creating New Order Regiments of Reiters, Soldiers, Dragoons, and Hussars. He used this new army to crush rebellions in Pskov and Novgorod in 1650. In 1651, he went to war with Safavid Persia after the Persians attacked Russian fortifications in the North Caucasus. He also took advantage of Poland's instability to ally with the Cossack Hetmanate and initiate the Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667, capturing Smolensk and acquiring dominance in left-bank Ukraine. By 1655, Poland was partitioned between Russia and Sweden, who went to war in 1656. Poland eventually recovered and expelled the Swedes, and Russia was forced to retrocede all her Swedish conquests in 1661. A 1667 peace with Poland left Smolensk and Kyiv in Russian hands along with the whole eastern bank of the Dnieper. Alexis' reign was also marked by a schism between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believers in response to Patriarch Nikon's realignment of Russian Orthodoxy towards Greek Orthodox practices. During the 1670s, Stenka Razin and the Don Cossacks rebelled against the Tsar, but Razin was captured in 1671 and was drawn and quartered in Moscow. Alexis died in 1676 and was succeeded by his son Feodor III of Russia; his other sons Ivan V and Peter the Great would also go on to reign as tsars.