Ivan was the crown prince of Vasili III, the Rurikid ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and was appointed Grand Prince at three years-old after his father’s death. A group of reformers, united around the young Ivan, declared him Tsar in 1547 at the Continue Reading
Nicholas II Romanov was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. In 1914, Russia was drawn into World War I, but was unprepared for the scale and magnitude of the fighting. Nicholas’ subjects were Continue Reading
The Battle of Berezina took place from November 26-29, 1812, between the French army of Napoleon, retreating after his invasion of Russia and crossing the Berezina, and the Russian armies under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein and Admiral Pavel Chichagov. The battle ended with a mixed Continue Reading
On 20 October 1982, the weather in Moscow was snowy and extraordinarily cold for the middle of October. There were 82,000 match tickets available, but because of the freezing weather conditions only 16,500 tickets were sold. In preparation for the match, the stadium management decided Continue Reading
