The Romanov dynasty, representatives of an old Russian noble family, was in power for three centuries, from the accession to the throne of Mikhail Romanov in 1613 until the abdication of the throne of Nikolai the Second Romanov in 1917.
The Romanovs are descended from the Lithuanian (according to other sources - Novgorod) Ivan Divonovich, whose son Andrei Kobyl came to Moscow in the 14th century and created a large family, whose sons became the ancestors of several noble dynasties. The surname Romanov has a long history: initially the ancestors of this family were called the Koshkin-Zakharyins, then - the Zakharyins-Yuryevs, after the Zakharyins-Romanovs and, finally, just the Romanovs, named Roman Yuryevich, one of the elders of the clan. It is this surname that the patriarch Filaret, or Fedor Nikitich Romanov, took in the world.
For two centuries, the Romanov dynasty, along with the Sheremetevs, Sukhovo-Kobylins, and Yurievs, was considered one of the most eminent noble families in Russia. Approaching the royal court was made possible thanks to the marriage of Ivan the Terrible with one of the representatives of the Romanov branch, Anastasia Zakharyina-Koshkina.
After the death of Grozny and the accession to the throne of Boris Godunov, difficult times came for the Romanovs: the new autocrat tried to destroy competitors on his tsarist path. Some of the men in the family were forcibly tonsured as monks, some were arrested and exiled. The situation changed with the appearance of False Dmitry the First: the young man insisted that he himself belonged to the noble Romanov family and, in order to prove the veracity of his words, ordered that all surviving family members be returned from the places of exile. They turned out to be few: Filaret, his wife Marfa and their children. One of the sons of Filaret (Fedor) was destined to become the first Russian Tsar of the Romanov family.
The great-nephew of Ivan the Terrible, 16-year-old Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, was elected to the kingdom by the Zemsky Sobor in 1613. The beginning of his reign symbolized the end of the Time of Troubles in Russia. Michael ruled for 33 years and left behind ten children, five of whom died in infancy. The throne was taken by the third son, Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest. During his reign, the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, the Russo-Polish War and the Salt Riot in Moscow fell out. However, the main achievement of Alexei was the fatherhood of perhaps the most famous sovereign of the Romanov family Peter the Great.
The era of Peter's reforms gave way to the period of the Palace coups, then - the coming to power of Catherine II, who married Peter the Third Romanov. The descendants of Catherine Pavel, Alexander the First, Nikolai the First, Alexander the Second, Alexander the Third and Nikolai the Second ruled the country in turn until the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. After 300 years of being on the throne, the Romanov dynasty surrendered its position with the abdication of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II. And in 1918, the former emperor and his family were shot by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg.
