Alexis of Russia

Alexei Mikhailovich (Russian: Алексей Михайлович, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ]; 19 March [O.S. 9 March] 1629 – 8 February [O.S. 29 January] 1676), also known as Alexis, was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. He was the second Russian tsar from the House of Romanov.

He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority and his council passed the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, which strengthened the bonds between autocracy and the lower nobility. In religious matters, he sided closely with Patriarch Nikon during the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church which saw unpopular liturgical reforms.

While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars with Iran, Poland (from whom left-bank Ukraine and Smolensk were annexed) and Sweden, as well as internal instabilities such as the Salt Riot in Moscow and the Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin in southern Russia. At the time of his death, Russia spanned almost 8.1 million km² (3.1 million sq mi).

Alexis was born on 19 March [O.S. 9 March] 1629, in Moscow, to Tsar Michael and Eudoxia Streshneva. At the age of sixteen, he acceded to the throne after his father's death on 12 July 1645. In August, the Tsar's mother died, and following a pilgrimage to Sergiyev Posad he was crowned on 28 September in the Dormition Cathedral. He was committed to the care of his tutor Boris Morozov, a shrewd boyar open to Western ideas.

Morozov pursued a peaceful foreign policy, securing a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and carefully avoiding complications with the Ottoman Empire. His domestic policy aimed at limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing useless and expensive court offices. On 17 January 1648, Morozov procured the marriage of the tsar with Maria Miloslavskaya, himself marrying her sister Anna ten days later; both were daughters of Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky.

Alexis empowered Morozov to conduct reforms to reduce social tensions; however, his measure of tripling the tax burden (arrears for the two years preceding 1648 was demanded) caused heightened popular discontent. Morozov was regarded as a corrupt, self-seeking boyar and was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. In May 1648 Muscovites rose against his faction in the Salt Riot, and the young Tsar was compelled to dismiss them and exile Morozov to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Four months later, Morozov secretly returned to Moscow to regain some of his power.

The popular discontent demonstrated by the riot was partially responsible for Alexis' 1649 issuance of a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozheniye.

In 1648, using the experience of creating regiments of the foreign system during the reign of his father, Alexis began reforming the army.