royals-and-quotes:

The House of Romanov was the second dynasty, after the House of Rurik, to rule over Russia, and reigned from 1613 when Mikhail Romanov was crowned as Tsar of Russia. During the Romanov reign Russia became and remained a major European power. The Romanov dynasty ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on March 15, 1917, as a result of the February Revolution.  In early 1917 the Romanov dynasty had 65 members, 18 of whom were killed by the Bolsheviks. The remaining 47 members went into exile abroad.

Eudoxia Feodorovna Lopukhina (1669 – 1731) was the first wife of Tsar Peter I of Russia. They married on 27 January 1689 but divorced in 1698. She is the mother of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the paternal grandmother of Tsar Peter II of Russia. 

Catherine I (1684 – 1727) was born Marta Helena Skowrońska, daughter of Lithuanian peasant Samuil Skavronsky.  In 1705 during baptizing into Orthodox Christianity she was named Catherine Alexeyevna. Though no record exists, Catherine married to Tsar Peter I of Russia between 23 October and 1 December 1707 in St. Petersburg.  Upon their wedding, Catherine took the style of her husband and became Tsarina. When Peter elevated the Russian Tsardom to Empire, Catherine became Empress. In 1724 Catherine was officially crowned and named co-ruler. 

Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter-in-law Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great’s policies in modernizing Russia. 

Anna Ivanovna(1693 – 1740), was the daughter of Tsar Ivan V by his wife Praskovia Saltykova.  Anna’s father died in February 1696, when Anna was only three years old, and her uncle, Tsar Peter I, became the ruler of Russia.  In 1710, Peter the Great arranged for the 17-year-old Anna to marry Frederick William, Duke of Courland.  After her husband died, Anna became the regent of the Duchy of Courland from 1711 to 1730. When Tsar Peter II (grandson of Peter the Great) died childless at a young age in 1730,  the Russian Supreme Privy Council selected Anna to be the new Empress of Russia.  Before Anna died in 1741, she declared her 2-month-old grandnephew, Ivan Antonovich (Ivan VI of Russia), as the heir to the throne. 

Elizabeth Petrovna (1709 – 1762) was  the daughter of Tsar Peter I of Russia by his second wife, Catherine I.  She is the cousin of Empress Anna of Russia. When Anna declared 2-month-old Ivan VI as her successor before she died in October 1741, Elizabeth organized her allies within the military, and in November 1741, they staged a coup in which the infant Emperor and his mother and advisors were arrested. Elizabeth was crowned Empress on April 25, 1742.  Under the reign of Elizabeth, the Russian court was one of the most splendid in all Europe.  As an unmarried and childless Empress, she proclaimed her nephew Peter of Holstein-Gottorp (Peter III of Russia) as heir to the throne. 

Catherine II of Russia also known as Catherine the Great (1729 - 1796). Born in Germany as Sophia Frederica Augusta von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, on 2 May 1729 into the family of Christian Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. After converting to Orthodox, she was named Catherine (Yekaterina) Alekseyevna. On 21 August 1745, Catherine married Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (nephew of Empress Elizabeth of Russia) and the heir to throne of Russia.  When Empress Elizabeth died in 1762, Peter succeeded to the throne as Emperor Peter III. Barely six months later Catherine staged a coup d'état, had her husband arrested and forced him to sign a document of abdication. Shortly after his arrest he was killed in a fight with his captors.

On June 1762, Catherine was declared Empress of Russia and her son, Paul Petrovich as the heir to the throne. She was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. The period of Catherine the Great’s rule, the Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire and the Russian nobility.