Alexei Mikhailovich

ALEXEI MIKHAILOVICH was the second Romanov tsar and ruled the Tsardom of Russia from 1645 to 1676. He was born in Moscow on 19 (29) March 1629 to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and Eudoxia Lukyanovna Streshneva. He succeeded his father at the age of sixteen. During the early years of his reign his tutor, boyar Boris Morozov, exercised substantial influence in government; after the Moscow uprising of 1648, a Zemsky Sobor was convened and adopted the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649. His reign saw the Customs Statute of 1653 and New Trade Statute of 1667, the establishment of the Prikaz of Secret Affairs, and continued development of new-model military regiments. Alexei supported Patriarch Nikon's church reforms, which became one of the factors in the schism of the Russian Church. Agreements with the Zaporozhian Host in 1654 were followed by the Tsardom of Russia's entry into a prolonged war with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 changed borders and political control in the region. His reign also encompassed the Copper Riot of 1662 and the uprising led by Stepan Razin in 1670–1671. Alexei Mikhailovich married twice: Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya in 1648, with whom he had thirteen children including Feodor III, Sophia and Ivan V, and Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina in 1671, with whom he had Peter I, Natalya and Feodora. He died in Moscow on 29 January (8 February) 1676.