Why go
The conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan placed Muslim Tatar populations within the expanding state, while the Time of Troubles brought foreign intervention to Moscow itself. Together these histories explain both the tsardom’s growing diversity and the fragility beneath its centralised power.
The full story
Ivan IV, crowned tsar in 1547, strengthened the monarchy while introducing legal and administrative changes. His reign also included the oprichnina, a separate domain associated with violent purges, and the massacre of Novgorod in 1570. Military losses, epidemics and poor harvests compounded the damage. Expansion along the Volga brought the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan under Moscow’s control. Farther east, the Stroganov merchant family supported Cossack ventures beyond the Urals. These conquests brought different religious and cultural communities into the state, while the costly Livonian War failed to secure Ivan’s Baltic ambitions. After the death of Ivan’s son Feodor, disputed succession, famine and foreign intervention contributed to the Time of Troubles. Polish–Lithuanian forces reached Moscow during the crisis. The first Romanovs later rebuilt central authority with the cooperation of the nobility, whose service to the state accompanied the growing restriction of peasant freedom.