Peter the Great is credited with establishing the Russian Navy and modernizing the Russian military.

Moscow was the capital of Russia before St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703.

Catherine the Great expanded the Russian Empire eastward to the Pacific Ocean through conquests and exploration.

The Holy Synod was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1721 to 1917.

Alexander II abolished serfdom in Russia in 1861, freeing millions of peasants from bondage.

The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party that aimed to overthrow the Tsarist regime and establish a socialist state.

Nicholas II was the last Tsar of Russia. He was assassinated in 1917, leading to the collapse of the Russian Empire and the establishment of the Soviet Union.

The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in 1905, ending the Russo-Japanese War. It resulted in Russia ceding control of Port Arthur and southern Manchuria to Japan.

Leo Tolstoy is known for his epic novel 'War and Peace', which provides a panoramic view of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is known for composing the ballet 'The Nutcracker', which is based on the story 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Ivan Aivazovsky is known for his painting 'The Ninth Wave', which depicts a group of shipwrecked sailors clinging to a piece of wreckage during a storm.

Dmitri Mendeleev developed the periodic table of elements, which organizes chemical elements based on their atomic number, electron configuration, and recurring chemical properties.

Robert Peary, an American explorer, led the first expedition to reach the North Pole in 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit guides.

Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space in 1961, aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 1.

Anna Pavlova is known for her role in 'The Dying Swan', a ballet solo choreographed by Michel Fokine to music by Camille Saint-Saëns.