Estonia Governorate

Estonia, 1721–1918. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Estonia Governorate, also historically known as the Estland or Esthonia Governorate, was a province (guberniya) and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. In the Treaty of Nystad of 1721, Sweden formally ceded its former dominion of Estonia, Livonia, and its other territories to Russia, whereas Russia paid Sweden compensation of 2 million efimki (1.3 million rubles). The accession of Alexander III in 1881 marked the beginning of a period of more rigid Russification; the previous Baltic civil and criminal codes were replaced with Russian ones, and the Russian language replaced the German language and Estonian language. The Estonian independence that came on 24 February 1918 marked the permanent end for the governorate.

Seat of power: Tallinn

Rulers

Peter the Great

Emperor of all the Russias, 1721–1725

Peter the Great was the tsar of all Russia from 1682 to 1721, and the first emperor of Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. After his victory in the Great Northern War, Russia annexed a significant portion of the eastern Baltic coastline and was officially raised from a tsardom to an empire.

Portrait of Peter the Great: Attributed to Jean-Marc Nattier, Public domain, file

Catherine I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1725–1727

Catherine I was Empress of Russia from 8 February 1725 until her death in 1727. She was previously empress consort of Russia from 1721 to 1725 as the second wife of Peter the Great.

Portrait of Catherine I of Russia: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, file

Peter II of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1727–1730

Peter II Alexeyevich was Emperor of Russia from 1727 until 1730, when he died at the age of 14. Peter's reign was marked by disengagement, disorder, and indulgence.

Portrait of Peter II of Russia: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, file

Anna I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1730–1740

She ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Within Russia, Anna's reign is often referred to as a "dark era".

Portrait of Anna I of Russia: Louis Caravaque, Public domain, file

Ivan VI of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1740–1741

Ivan VI Antonovich was Emperor of Russia from October 1740 until he was overthrown by his cousin Elizabeth Petrovna in December 1741. He was only two months old when he was proclaimed emperor and his mother, Anna Leopoldovna, named regent.

Portrait of Ivan VI of Russia: anonymous / Unidentified painter, Public domain, file

Elizabeth I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1741–1762

She remains one of the most popular Russian monarchs because of her decision not to execute a single person during her reign, her numerous construction projects, and her strong opposition to Prussian policies.

Portrait of Elizabeth I of Russia: Vigilius Eriksen, Public domain, file

Catherine II of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1762–1796

Her reign of over 34 years saw an era of prosperity during the Enlightenment in which many new cities, universities and theatres were established; large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe occurred; and the Russian Empire was recognised as a great power of Europe.

Portrait of Catherine II of Russia: After Alexander Roslin, Public domain, file

Peter III of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1762–1762

Peter III Fyodorovich was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when his wife, Catherine II, overthrew him in a palace coup d'état.

Portrait of Peter III of Russia: Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, Public domain, file

Paul I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1796–1801

Paul I was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. He also imposed the first limitations on serfdom with the Manifesto of three-day corvee, sought to curtail the privileges of the nobility, pursued various military reforms which were highly unpopular among officers and was known for his unpredictable behavior, all of which contributed to the conspiracy that took his life.

Portrait of Paul I of Russia: Vladimir Borovikovsky, Public domain, file

Alexander I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1801–1825

In the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and (in 1803–1804) major liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. He was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825.

Portrait of Alexander I of Russia: George Dawe, Public domain, file

Nicholas I of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1825–1855

He was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825 to 1855. He is mainly remembered as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, centralisation of administrative policies, and repression of dissent both in Russia and among its neighbors.

Portrait of Nicholas I of Russia: Georg von Bothmann, Public domain, file

Alexander II of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1855–1881

He is also known as Alexander the Liberator because of his historic Edict of Emancipation, which officially abolished Russian serfdom in 1861. However, many of these reforms were met with intense backlash and cut back or reversed entirely, and Alexander eventually shifted towards a considerably more conservative political stance following an assassination attempt against him in 1866.

Portrait of Alexander II of Russia: Attributed to W. & D. Downey, Public domain, file

Alexander III of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1881–1894

He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II, a policy of "counter-reforms". During his reign, Russia fought no major wars, and he came to be known as The Peacemaker.

Portrait of Alexander III of Russia: Sergey Lvovich Levitsky, Public domain, file

Nicholas II of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1894–1917

He was the last Emperor of Russia from 1 November 1894 until his abdication in 1917. Despite ostensibly presiding over a constitutional monarchy, Nicholas resisted political reform and retained autocratic control over the nation's governance even after the establishment of the Duma.

Portrait of Nicholas II of Russia: Unknown author (originally uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 22 August 2012 by Peruanec), Public domain, file

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia

Emperor of all the Russias, 1917–1917

He was designated Emperor of Russia after his brother abdicated in 1917 and proclaimed him "Emperor Michael II", but Michael declined to take power a day later.

Portrait of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, file

Culture

Serfdom remained in place until its abolition in 1816.
From the 1850s to 1914, the Estonian national awakening influenced and characterized the governorate by general modernization, the reorganization into a modern European society, and the success of the newly emerged nationalist awareness.
Although many Estonians still continued to assimilate into the German and Russian cultures, many nationwide efforts to promote the Estonian culture were seen, especially for the Estonian-language Alexander School, the Society of Estonian Literati, and the all-Estonian song festivals.
The cathedral was built during the period of late 19th century Russification and has been disliked by many Estonians as a symbol of former Russian oppression.

Picture

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral of Tallinn was built in 1894–1900, when the country was part of the former Russian Empire.

Image: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.