Tsardom of Russia

State · 1547–1720 CE · at its largest around 1718 CE

Muscovite Russia was an Orthodox realm whose rulers saw Moscow as the 'Third Rome', heir to Byzantium. It survived Ivan the Terrible's terror and the Time of Troubles, while Cossacks and fur traders pushed across Siberia to the Pacific and the Old Believer schism split the church.

On its lands while it lasted

Isker (c. 1490–1587 CE): Capital of Khanate of Sibir (1490–1587).
Ivan the Terrible (1530 CE – 1584 CE): Grand Prince of Moscow who in 1547 became the first to be crowned Tsar of all Russia. He conquered Kazan and Astrakhan and ruled through the terror of the oprichnina.
Yermak Timofeyevich (c. 1532 CE – 1585 CE): Cossack leader whose expedition against the Khanate of Sibir began the Russian conquest of Siberia.
Saint Basil's Cathedral (1555 CE): Built on Red Square in Moscow between 1555 and 1561 on the orders of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan. Its colourful domes are a symbol of Russia.
Union of Lublin (1569 CE): Signed in Lublin in 1569, this act merged the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Russian conquest of Siberia (1580–1778 CE): Russian expansion across northern Asia from the Urals to the Pacific, beginning with the defeat of the Khanate of Sibir.
Willem Barentsz’s third voyage and winter on Novaya Zemlya (1596–1597 CE): Searching for a northeast passage to Asia, Barentsz’s crew sighted Bear Island and Spitsbergen, then were trapped by ice off Novaya Zemlya and wintered in a driftwood hut. Barentsz died during the escape in open boats to the Kola Peninsula.
Warsaw (c. 1596 CE): Capital of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1596–1793), Duchy of Warsaw (1809–1815), Second Polish Republic (1919–1939), and 1 more.
Ulaanbaatar (1639 CE): Capital of Mongolian People's Republic (1926–1991), Mongolia (1992–today).
Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1657 CE): Cossack revolt led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in Ukraine. It created a Cossack Hetmanate that allied with Russia in 1654; many Jewish communities were massacred.
Peter the Great (1672 CE – 1725 CE): Tsar and first Emperor of Russia who modernised the state and army on western European lines, defeated Sweden and founded Saint Petersburg.
Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689 CE): First treaty between Russia and Qing China, fixing their border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains.
Great Northern War (1700–1721 CE): A coalition led by Russia fought the Swedish Empire from 1700 to 1721. Russia's victory, sealed by the Treaty of Nystad, made it the leading power of northern Europe.
Saint Petersburg (1703 CE): Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg on the Neva delta in 1703 as a 'window to Europe'. It was Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918.
Battle of Poltava (1709 CE): Peter the Great's Russian army crushed Charles XII's Swedish army at Poltava in Ukraine in 1709, ending Sweden's status as a great power.