The Russian empire, otherwise known as Imperial Russia, was the final period of the Russian monarchy lasting from 1721 until its dissolution in 1917.

The Thousandth Year of the Russian Empire. Share full article. Jan. 16, 1862. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from January 16, 1862, Page 6 Buy Reprints.

On September 10, 1721, the peace treaty that ended the Great Northern War was signed in the Finnish city of Nystad, which for two decades pitted the Russian Tsardom against the Swedish Empire.

Mikhail Zygar, a Russian author and the founding editor of an independent television station called TV Rain, has written a book, The Empire Must Die, that, among other things, tells the story of ...