Alexis of Russia

{{Short description|Tsar of Russia from 1645 to 1676}} {{For|the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church of the same name|Patriarch Alexy of Moscow (disambiguation)}} {{Expand Russian|topic=bio|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Alexis | image = Alexis I of Russia (1670-1680s, GIM).jpg | caption = Portrait by an unknown Russian artist, {{circa|1670|1680}} | succession = Tsar of all Russia | reign = {{OldStyleDate|23 July|1645|13&nbsp;July}} – {{OldStyleDate|8 February|1676|29 January}} | coronation = 28 September 1645 | cor-type = russia | predecessor = Michael I | successor = Feodor III | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{marriage|Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya|1648|1669|end=d}} * {{marriage|Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina|1671}} }} | issue = {{Plainlist| * Tsarevich Dmitri Alexeevich * Tsarevna Yevdokia Alekseevna * Tsarevna Marfa Alekseyevna * Tsarevich Alexei Alexeyevich * Tsarevna Sofia Alexeevna * Tsarevna Ekaterina Alexeevna * Tsarevna Maria Alexeevna * Feodor III * Tsarevna Feodosia Alexeyevna * Tsarevich Simeon Alexeyevich * Ivan V * Peter I * Tsarevna Natalya Alexeevna }} | issue-link = #Family and children | issue-pipe = among others... | full name = Alexei Mikhailovich | house = Romanov | father = Michael of Russia | mother = Eudoxia Streshneva | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1629|3|19|}} | birth_place = Moscow, Russia<!--See MOS:GEOLINK--> | death_date = {{death date and age|1676|2|8|1629|3|19|df=y}} | death_place = Moscow, Russia | burial_date = | burial_place = Cathedral of the Archangel | religion = Russian Orthodox }}

'''Alexei Mikhailovich'''{{efn|In full '''Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov (Tishayshy)''' ({{langx|ru|Алексей Михайлович Романов (Тишайший)|Aleksey Mikhaylovich Romanov (Tishayshy)|Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, the Quietest}})}} ({{langx|ru|Алексей Михайлович}},{{efn|Pre-reform spelling: Алеѯі́й Мїха́иловичъ}} {{IPA|ru|ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ|IPA}}; {{OldStyleDate|19 March|1629|9 March}} – {{OldStyleDate|8 February|1676|29 January}}), also known as '''Alexis''',<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=John M. |title=Russia and the Soviet Union : a historical introduction from the Kievan State to the present |date=2013 |publisher=Westview Press, A member of the Perseus Books Group |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=9780813346977 |edition=Seventh}}</ref> was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676.<ref name="Morby">{{cite book |last1=Morby |first1=John |title=Dynasties of the World |date=18 September 2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-178007-3 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191780073.001.0001/acref-9780191780073-e-196 |language=en |chapter=Russia, Tsardom of}}</ref><ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexis-tsar-of-Russia |title=Alexis |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=18 October 2018}}</ref> He was the second Russian tsar from the House of Romanov.<ref name="Morby"/>

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.<ref name=":0"/> In religious matters, he sided closely with Patriarch Nikon during the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church which saw unpopular liturgical reforms.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Freeze |first=Gregory L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_xBkabfpfXwC |title=Russia: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-956041-7 |location=Great Britain |pages=80–82 |language=en}}</ref>

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 {{convert|8.1|e6km2|e6mi2|abbr=unit}}.

==Early life and reign==

Alexis was born on {{OldStyleDate|19 March|1629|9 March}},<ref name="Britannica"/> in Moscow, to Tsar Michael and Eudoxia Streshneva.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greener |first=W.O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOoQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 |title=The story of Moscow |publisher=Рипол Классик |year=1900 |page=120}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sebag Montefiore |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore |title=The Romanovs |date=2016 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=United Kingdom |page=43}}</ref> He was committed to the care of his tutor Boris Morozov, a shrewd boyar open to Western ideas.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Alexius Mikhailovich|volume=1|page=578|first=Robert Nisbet|last=Bain|author-link=Robert Nisbet Bain}}</ref>

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;<ref name="EB1911"/> 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.<ref name=":0"/> 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.<ref name=":1"/>

The popular discontent demonstrated by the riot was partially responsible for Alexis' 1649 issuance of a new legal code, the ''Sobornoye Ulozheniye''.<ref name="Britannica"/>

==Later reign==

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

The main direction of the reform was the mass creation of New Order Regiments: Reiters, Soldiers, Dragoons and Hussars.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge history of Russia|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|editor-last1=Perrie |editor-first1=Maureen |editor-last2=Lieven |editor-first2=D. C. B. |editor-last3=Suny |editor-first3=Ronald Grigor|isbn=9780521812276|location=Cambridge|oclc=77011698}}</ref> These regiments formed the backbone of the new army of Tsar Alexis. To fulfill the reform goals, a large number of European military specialists were hired for service. This became possible because of the end of the Thirty Years' War, which created a colossal surplus of military professionals in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Moskovskie vybornye polki soldatskogo stroi︠a︡ v nachalʹnyĭ period svoeĭ istorii, 1656-1671 gg.|last=Malov |first=A. V. (Aleksandr Vital'evich) (Александр|date=2006|publisher=Drevlekhranilishche|isbn=5936461068|location=Moskva|oclc=75971374}}</ref>

===Rebellions=== thumb|Portrait by a Polish painter, 1657 Throughout his reign, Alexis faced rebellions across Russia. After resolving the 1648 Salt Riot Alexis faced rebellions in 1650 in the cities of Pskov and Great Novgorod. Alexis put down the Novgorod rebellion quickly, but was unable to subdue Pskov, and was forced to promise the city amnesty in return for surrender. The Metropolitan Nikon distinguished himself at Great Novgorod and in 1651 became the Tsar's chief minister.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Moss|first=Walter|title=A History of Russia: To 1917|year=2002|publisher=Anthem Press|pages=163–166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXgNSFIEJ2QC&pg=PA164|isbn=9781843310235}}</ref>

By the 1660s, Alexis's wars with Poland and Sweden had put an increasing strain on the Russian economy and public finances. In response, Alexis's government had begun minting large numbers of copper coins in 1654 to increase government revenue but this led to a devaluation of the ruble and a severe financial crisis. As a result, angry Moscow residents revolted in the 1662 Copper Riot, which was put down violently.<ref name=":1"/>

In 1669, the Cossacks along the Don in southern Russia erupted in rebellion. The rebellion was led by Stenka Razin, a disaffected Don Cossack who had captured the Russian terminus of Astrakhan. From 1670 to 1671, Razin seized multiple towns along the Volga river. The turning point in his campaign was his failed siege of Simbirsk in October 1670. Razin was finally captured on the Don in April 1671, and was drawn and quartered in Moscow.<ref name=":1"/>

===War against Safavid Iran=== {{Main|Russo-Persian War (1651–1653)}}

In 1651, Safavid troops attacked Russian fortifications in the North Caucasus. The main issue involved the expansion of a Russian garrison on the Koy Su river, as well as the construction of several new fortresses, in particular the one built on the Iranian side of the Terek river.{{sfn|Matthee|1999|page=169}}{{sfn|Matthee|2012|page=122}} The successful Safavid offensive resulted in the destruction of the Russian fortress and its garrison being expelled.{{sfn|Matthee|1999|page=169}}{{sfn|Matthee|2012|page=122}} In 1653, Alexis, initially thinking about sending the Zaporozhian Cossacks, eventually decided to send an embassy to Persia for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. In August 1653 courtier Prince Ivan Lobanov-Rostov and steward Ivan Komynin traveled from Astrakhan to Isfahan. Shah Abbas II agreed to settle the conflict, stating that the conflict was initiated without his consent.

===Wars against Poland and Sweden=== thumb|Banner of Tsar Alexis, 1654 {{Main|Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)|Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658)}}

In 1653, the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged from the Khmelnytsky Uprising, encouraged Alexis to attempt to annex parts of White Russia and Little Russia (modern-day Belarus and Ukraine). On 1 October 1653, a national assembly met at Moscow to sanction the war and find the means of carrying it out, and in April 1654, the army was blessed by Nikon, who had been elected patriarch in 1652.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted triumph, and scores of towns, including the important fortress of Smolensk, fell into the hands of the Russians.<ref name="EB1911"/> Ukrainian hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky appealed to Tsar Alexis for protection from the Poles, and the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought about Russian dominance of the Cossack Hetmanate in left-bank Ukraine. [[File:Tsar Alexey Mihajlovich on review of armies in 1664.jpg|thumb|Tsar Alexei inspecting his troops in 1664, painting by Nikolai Sverchkov, 1864]]

In the summer of 1655, a sudden invasion by Charles X of Sweden briefly swept the Polish state out of existence, in what became known as the Deluge. The Russians, unopposed, quickly appropriated nearly everything that was not already occupied by the Swedes. When the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole grand duchy of Lithuania was the least of the demands made by Alexis. However, Alexis and the king of Sweden quarrelled over the apportionment of the spoils, and at the end of May 1656, with encouragement by the Habsburg emperor and the other enemies of Sweden, Alexis declared war on Sweden.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Great things were expected by Russia of the Swedish war, but nothing came of it. Dorpat was taken, but countless multitudes of men were lost in vain before Riga. In the meantime, Poland had so far recovered herself as to become a much more dangerous foe than Sweden, and, as it was impossible to wage war with both simultaneously, the tsar resolved to rid himself of the Swedes first. In the Peace of Kardis (2 July 1661), Russia retroceded all her conquests.<ref name="EB1911"/> thumb|Portrait of Alexis on horseback, 1670s

The Polish war dragged on for six years longer and was then concluded by the Truce of Andrusovo (11 February 1667), nominally for thirteen years, which proved the most durable of treaties. According to the truce, Polotsk and Polish Livonia were restored to Poland, but the more important cities of Smolensk and Kiev remained in the hands of Russia together with the whole eastern bank of the Dnieper river. This truce was the achievement of Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin, the first Russian chancellor and diplomat in the modern sense, who after the disgrace of Nikon became the tsar's first minister until 1670, when he was superseded by the equally able Artamon Matveyev, whose beneficent influence prevailed to the end of Alexis's reign.<ref name="EB1911"/>

These territorial acquisitions allowed Alexis to call himself the "tsar of all the Russias" and claim imperial rank.{{sfn|Wortman|2013|p=14}} The new state seal was introduced in 1667, with three crowns above the eagle symbolizing Astrakhan, Kazan, and Siberia, while the sets of three columns at the borders symbolized Great, White and Little Russia.{{sfn|Wortman|2013|p=14}} According to the decree, the eagle holding the sceptre and orb signified "the most gracious Sovereign, His Imperial Majesty, Autocrat, and Possessor."{{sfn|Wortman|2013|p=14}}

===Response to English Civil War=== [[File:Spas romanovy.jpg|thumb|Icon depicting Michael of Russia and his son Alexis, 1678]]

When Charles I of England was beheaded by the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell in 1649, an outraged Alexis broke off diplomatic relations with England and accepted Royalist refugees in Moscow. He also banned all English merchants from his country (notably members of the Muscovy Company) and provided financial assistance to "the disconsolate widow of that glorious martyr, King Charles I."<ref>Massie, Robert K. ''Peter the Great: His Life and World''. Knopf: 1980. {{ISBN|0-394-50032-6}}. Page 12.</ref>

===Schism with the Old Believers=== {{Main|Raskol}} In 1653, Patriarch Nikon established a series of reforms that aimed to bring the practices of the Russian Orthodox Church into line with its Greek counterpart. Most notably, the church began to mandate the use of three fingers instead of two in making the sign of the cross. This resulted in significant dissent among the church community. Nevertheless, Alexis continued to support Nikon until 1658, when Nikon abandoned his post due to a personal insult, leaving the seat of the patriarch vacant.<ref name="Moss 2002 208–209">{{cite book|last=Moss|first=Walter|title=A History of Russia: To 1917|year=2002|publisher=Anthem Press|pages=208–209|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXgNSFIEJ2QC&pg=PA209|isbn=9781843310235}}</ref>

In 1666, the tsar convened the Great Moscow Synod, which was attended by Patriarch Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im and Patriarch Paisius of Alexandria, in order to address the problems caused by Nikon. The synod agreed to formally depose Nikon, and also decided to excommunicate all who opposed the reforms of the church; those opponents broke away from the official Russian Orthodox Church to form the Old Believers movement.<ref name="Moss 2002 208–209"/>

Across Russia, Old Believers were harshly persecuted. One such old believer was Avvakum "the leader of the old Believers". Avvakum "had his wife and children buried alive in front of him; he himself was just exiled".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montefiore |first=Simon Sebag |title=The Romanovs |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2016 |isbn=9780307280510 |location=United States |pages=43–59 |language=English}}</ref>

Several old believers fled to the monastery of Solovki which had revolted in the Solovetsky Monastery uprising. The monastery would be besieged for seven years until 22 January 1676 which was a few days before Alexis's death on 8 February 1676.

==Assessment== [[File:PhilipandNikon.jpg|thumb|Alexis praying before the relics of Phillip II in the presence of Patriarch Nikon, painting by Alexander Litovchenko, 1886]] According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition: {{blockquote|It is the crowning merit of the Tsar Alexei that he discovered so many great men (like Fyodor Rtishchev, Ordin, Matveyev, the best of Peter's precursors) and suitably employed them. He was not a man of superior strength of character, or he would never have submitted to the dictation of Nikon. But, on the other hand, he was naturally, if timorously, progressive, or he would never have encouraged the great reforming boyar Matveyev. His last years, notwithstanding the terrible rebellion of Stenka Razin, were deservedly tranquil.<ref name="EB1911"/>}}

Alexis's letters were first published by Pyotr Bartenev in 1856. They have earned him a place in the history of Russian literature, as assessed by D. S. Mirsky:

<blockquote>A few private letters and an instruction to his falconers is all we have of him. But it is sufficient for Sergey Platonov to proclaim him the most attractive of Russian monarchs. He acquired the moniker ''Tishayshy'', which means "most quiet" or "most peaceful". He received this moniker through the ways he behaved—he would be kind and friendly, but the sounds created from instruments would provoke him. Certain aspects of Russian Orthodoxy, not its most purely spiritual, but its aesthetic and worldly aspects, found in him their most complete expression. The essence of Alexis's personality is a certain spiritual Epicureanism, manifested in an optimistic Christian faith, in a profound, but unfanatical, attachment to the traditions and ritual of the Church, in a desire to see everyone round him happy and at peace, and in a highly developed capacity to extract a quiet and mellow enjoyment from all things.<ref>Mirsky, D. S. ''A History of Russian Literature''. Northwestern University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-8101-1679-0}}. Page 27.</ref></blockquote>

==Personal description== [[File:1000 Alex Mikh.jpg|thumb|Tsar Alexis on the Millennium of Russia monument in Veliky Novgorod]] In 1666, his doctor Samuel Collins described Alexis (then aged 37) as having "a sanguine complexion with light brown hair, his beard uncut. He is tall and fat of a majestical deportment, severe in his anger, bountiful, charitable".<ref>{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Samuel |title=The Present State of Russia in a Letter to a Friend at London |date=1671 |publisher=John Winter |pages=44, 110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZFlAAAAcAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

==Title== The full title of Alexis in 1667 was:<ref>{{cite web|title=1667 г. Именной указ. "О титуле Царском и о Государственной печати"|url=https://base.garant.ru/55097775/|website=garant.ru}}</ref> {{Blockquote| By the Grace of God, We, the Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince Alexei Mikhailovich, Autocrat of all Great, Little and White Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Siberia, Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Prince of Tver, Yugorsk, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgar and others, Sovereign and Grand Prince of Novgorod of the Lower Land, Chernigov, Ryazan, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, and Ruler of all the Northern Countries, the Sovereign of the Iverian Lands, the Kartlian and Georgian Tsars and the Kabardian Lands, the Cherkasy and Mountainous Princes and many other States and Lands of the East and West, and the North from Father and Grandfather, and Heir, and Sovereign, and Possessor. }}

==Family and children== [[File:Alexis I's bride-show by G.Sedov (1882, GTG).jpg|thumb|''Tsar Alexei chooses his bride'', painting by Grigory Sedov, 1882. The winner of the tsardom-wide contest organized by Boris Morozov was his relative Maria Miloslavskaya.]]

Alexis's first marriage to Miloslavskaya was harmonious and felicitous. They had 13 children (five sons and eight daughters) in 21 years of marriage, and she died only weeks after her thirteenth childbirth. Four sons survived her (Alexei, Fyodor, Semyon and Ivan), but within six months of her death, two of these were dead, including Alexei, the 15-year-old heir to the throne. The couple's children were: * Dmitri Alexeevich (1648–1649); crown prince; died in infancy * Yevdokia Alekseevna (1650–1712) * Marfa Alekseyevna (1652–1707) * Alexei Alexeevich (1654–1670); crown prince; died unmarried aged 15 * Anna Alexeevna (23 January 1655– 8 May 1659); died in infancy * Sofia Alexeevna (1657–1704), regent of Russia (1682–1689) for her two younger brothers;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sophia-regent-of-Russia |title=Sophia |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=18 October 2018}}</ref> never married * Ekaterina Alexeevna (1658–1718) * Maria Alexeevna (1660–1723) * Fyodor III (1661–1682); succeeded his father as Tsar of Russia;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-III |title=Fyodor III |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=18 October 2018}}</ref> died childless * Feodosia Alexeyevna (1662–1713) * Simeon Alexeyevich (1665–1669); died in infancy * Ivan V (1666–1696); was co-ruler along with his younger half-brother Peter,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-the-Great |title=Peter I |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=18 October 2018}}</ref> father of Empress Anna * Yevdokia Alexeevna (1669–1669)

Alexis remarried on 1 February 1671 to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (1 September 1651 – 4 February 1694). She had been brought up in the house of Artamon Matveyev, whose wife was the Scottish-descended Mary Hamilton. Their children were: * Peter I (1672–1725), later known as "Peter the Great", Tsar and first Emperor of Russia * Natalya Alexeevna (1673–1716) * Fyodora Alexeevna (1674–1678)

==Ancestry==

{{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Alexis of Russia''' |2= 2. Michael I of Russia |3= 3. Eudoxia Streshneva |4= 4. Feodor Nikitich Romanov, Patriarch Philaret |5= 5. Xenia Shestova |6= 6. Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnyov |7= 7. Anna Konstantinovna Volkonskaya |8= 8. Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev |9= 9. Princess Eudoxia Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya |10= 10. Ivan Vasiljevich Shestov |12= 12. Stepan Andrejevich Streshnyov |14= 14. Konstantin Romanovich Volkonsky |16= 16. Roman Yurievich Zakharyin |17= 17. Juliana Fedorovna Karpova |18= 18. Prince Alexander Gorbaty-Shuysky |19= 19. Anastasia Petrovna Golovina |28= 28. Roman Alexandrovich Volkonsky }}

==See also== * Family tree of Russian monarchs

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== {{See also|Bibliography of Russian history (1613–1917)}} *{{cite book|last=Matthee|first=Rudolph P.|title=The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521641319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5U0yECMV--wC}} *{{cite book|last=Matthee|first=Rudi|title=Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan|date=2012|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1845117450}} * {{cite book |last1=Wortman |first1=Richard S. |title=Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy from Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II - New Abridged One-Volume Edition |date=31 October 2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4969-7 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Scenarios_of_Power/ykaVAQAAQBAJ |language=en}}

==Further reading== ===Primary sources=== *Grigory Kotoshikhin's ''On Russia during the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich'' (1665) is a key source on domestic life of the tsar and his court. *Yury Krizhanich's treatises from the 1660s are also very informative.

===Secondary sources=== *{{cite book|last=Longworth|first=Philip|title=Alexis, Tsar of All the Russias|date=1984|publisher=Franklin Watts|isbn=978-0531097700}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P7mOPKiKz8&list=TLArItmNkHoCoI8Hl3mX5ol6O44AzY6n8L Romanovs: The first film. Michael I, Alexis I] – Historical reconstruction "The Romanovs". StarMedia. Babich-Design (Russia, 2013)

{{s-start}} {{s-reg}} {{succession box|title=Tsar of Russia|before=Michael I|after=Feodor III|years=1645–1676}} {{s-end}}

{{Sovereign Rulers of Russia}} {{Tsarevich of Russia}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexis Of Russia}} Category:Alexis of Russia Category:1629 births Category:1676 deaths Category:17th-century Russian monarchs Category:Tsars of Russia Category:Candidates for the Polish elective throne Category:House of Romanov Category:Royalty from Moscow Category:People of the Russo-Persian Wars Category:Tsareviches of Russia Category:People of the Khmelnytsky Uprising