Romanov

Romanov, dynasty that ruled Russia for three centuries, from 1613 until the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Romanovs were descendants of a Moscow aristocrat whose daughter, Anastasia Romanov, married the Russian Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Ivan the Terrible). The children of Anastasia's brother Nikita adopted the name Romanov in honour of their grandfather being the father of a tsarina. Nikita’s grandson, Michael, became the first Romanov tsar. The Romanov succession of rule is as follows: Michael (reigned 1613-1645), Alexis I (reigned 1645-1676), Fyodor III (reigned 1676-1682), Peter the Great (reigned 1682-1725), Catherine I (reigned 1725-1727), Peter II (reigned 1727-1730), Anna Ivanovna (reigned 1730-1740), Ivan VI (reigned 1740-1741), Elizabeth Petrovna (reigned 1741-1762), Peter III (reigned 1762), Catherine the Great (reigned 1762-1796), Paul I (reigned 1796-1801), Alexander I (reigned 1801-1825), Nicholas I (reigned 1825-1855), Alexander II (reigned 1855-1881), Alexander III (reigned 1881-1894), and Nicholas II (reigned 1894-1917).

In 1991, following the decline of Communism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a Romanov successor to the vanquished Russian throne advocated a return to the constitutional monarchy. His only child, Grand Duchess Maria, became heir to the Russian royal family upon her father's death in 1992.