Editing History of Russia (section)

===Accession of the Romanovs and early rule===
[[File:Election of Michael I of Russia by A. Krivshenko.jpg|thumb|left|Election of 16-year-old [[Michael I of Russia|Mikhail Romanov]], the first Tsar of the [[Romanov dynasty]]]]

In February 1613, after the chaos and expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, a [[Zemsky Sobor|national assembly]] elected [[Michael I of Russia|Michael Romanov]], the young son of [[Patriarch Filaret (Feodor Romanov)|Patriarch Filaret]], to the throne. The [[Romanov]] dynasty ruled Russia until 1917.

The immediate task of the new monarch was to restore peace. Fortunately for Moscow, its major enemies, the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and [[Sweden]], were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Russia the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619.

Recovery of lost territories began in the mid-17th century, when the [[Chmielnicki Uprising|Khmelnitsky Uprising]] (1648–1657) in Ukraine against Polish rule brought about the [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]] between Russia and the [[Ukrainian Cossacks]]. In the treaty, Russia granted protection to the [[Cossack Hetmanate|Cossacks state]] in [[Left-bank Ukraine]], formerly under Polish control. This triggered a prolonged [[Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)]], which ended with the [[Treaty of Andrusovo]], where Poland accepted the loss of Left-bank Ukraine, [[Kiev]] and [[Smolensk]].<ref name=Curtis2/>
The [[Russian conquest of Siberia]], begun at the end of the 16th century, continued in the 17th century. By the end of the 1640s, the Russians reached the Pacific Ocean, the Russian explorer [[Semyon Dezhnev]], discovered the strait between Asia and America. Russian expansion in the Far East faced resistance from [[Qing China]]. After the war between Russia and China, the [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] was signed, delimiting the territories in the Amur region.
[[File:Соборное уложение глава 2.jpg|thumb|[[Sobornoye Ulozheniye]] was a legal code promulgated in 1649.]]
Rather than risk their estates in more civil war, the boyars cooperated with the first Romanovs, enabling them to finish the work of bureaucratic centralization. Thus, the state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return, the tsars allowed the boyars to complete the process of enserfing the peasants.

In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another. With the state now fully sanctioning [[Russian serfdom|serfdom]], runaway peasants became state fugitives, and the power of the landlords over the peasants "attached" to their land had become almost complete. Together, the state and the nobles placed an overwhelming burden of taxation on the peasants, whose rate was 100 times greater in the mid-17th century than it had been a century earlier. Likewise, middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and special taxes.<ref>For a discussion of the development of the class structure in Tsarist Russia see [[Theda Skocpol|Skocpol, Theda]]. ''[[States and Social Revolutions]]: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China''. Cambridge University Press, 1988.</ref>

Riots among peasants and citizens of Moscow at this time were endemic and included the [[Salt Riot]] (1648),<ref name=Kotilaine>Jarmo Kotilaine and Marshall Poe, ''Modernizing Muscovy: Reform and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Russia'', Routledge, 2004, p. 264. {{ISBN|0-415-30751-1}}.</ref> [[Copper Riot]] (1662),<ref name=Kotilaine/> and the [[Moscow Uprising of 1682|Moscow Uprising]] (1682).<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://militera.lib.ru/common/solovyev1/13_03.html Moscow Uprising of 1682] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701155153/http://militera.lib.ru/common/solovyev1/13_03.html |date=1 July 2017 }} in the ''History of Russia'' of [[Sergey Solovyov (historian)|Sergey Solovyov]]</ref> By far the greatest peasant uprising in 17th-century Europe erupted in 1667. As the free settlers of South Russia, the [[Cossacks]], reacted against the growing centralization of the state, serfs escaped from their landlords and joined the rebels. The Cossack leader [[Stenka Razin]] led his followers up the Volga River, inciting peasant uprisings and replacing local governments with Cossack rule.<ref name=Curtis2/> The tsar's army finally crushed his forces in 1670; a year later Stenka was captured and beheaded. Yet, less than half a century later, the strains of military expeditions produced another [[Bulavin Rebellion|revolt in Astrakhan]], ultimately subdued.