Alexei

Alexei, or ALEXIS, called MICHAÏLOVITCH, the second Russian czar of the House of Romanoff, was born in 1629, and succeeded his father, Michael, in 1645. An insurrection disturbed his reign in 1648, and popular discontent favoured the plans of two pretenders to the throne. In his two campaigns against the Poles (1654-67), he took Smolensk, conquered and devastated almost the whole of Lithuania, and secured for himself the possession of several provinces. He also gained a part of the Ukraine; but his war with Sweden (1656-58) was unfortunate. Alexei introduced various important reforms into the Russian laws; and ventured on some ecclesiastical changes, which produced serious dissensions. He died in 1676. By his second wife he was the father of Peter the Great.