This volume documents the lives of Tsars, famous and infamous, in a series of lively biographical portraits stretching from the late 15th to the early 20th centuries. With it come comprehensive time-lines, data files for every ruler detailing lineage, spouses and children, and place and cause of death, quotations and stunning illustrations. With biographical accounts of all 26 Tsars, from the empire-building Ivan the Great to the tragic Nicholas II, the book explores the personalities and eccentricities of the Tsars and empresses, both tyrants and reformers, including, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Alexander II, emancipator of the serfs. Over 90 sidebars explore special features ranging from the building of the Moscow Kremlin to Catherine the Great's lovers, while nearly 230 illustrations accompany genealogical trees of the Romanovs and their predecessors. Chronicle of the Russian Tsars is at once an absorbing narrative history and a really useful work of reference that brings to life a powerful empire and a distinctive civilization whose impact on the history of Europe and the world is insurmountable.