Michael Romanov Founds Russian Romanov Dynasty

On the basis of an election by a national assembly, the Zemsky Sobor, the sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov was chosen as czar of Russia in 1613, founding the Romanov dynasty. His selection brought an end to the Time of Troubles, a period of dynastic chaos, famine, foreign invasion, and civil war that had followed the extinction of the old Rurikid line and the death of Boris Godunov.

Michael's accession was widely accepted in part because of his family's connection to the previous dynasty through Anastasia Romanova, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible. Young and inexperienced, Michael relied heavily on his relatives and advisers, including his influential father Filaret, who became Patriarch of Moscow and effectively co-ruled, helping to restore stability to the devastated realm.

The Romanov dynasty that Michael founded would rule Russia for over three centuries. It presided over the empire's enormous territorial expansion and its emergence as a great European power under rulers such as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. The dynasty endured until 1917, when the Russian Revolution forced the abdication of Nicholas II and brought the Bolsheviks under Lenin to power.