Territorial evolution of Russia

The borders of Russia changed through military conquests and by ideological and political unions from the 16th century.

Tsarist Russia

The formal end to Tatar rule over Russia was the defeat of the Tatars at the Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480. Ivan III and Vasili III had consolidated the centralized Russian state following the annexations of the Novgorod Republic in 1478, Tver in 1485, the Pskov Republic in 1510, Volokolamsk in 1513, Ryazan in 1521, and Novgorod-Seversk in 1522.
After a period of political instability between 1598 and 1613, which became known as the Time of Troubles, the Romanovs came to power in 1613 and the expansion-colonization process of the tsardom continued. While Western Europe colonized the New World, the Tsardom of Russia expanded overland – principally to the east, north and south.
This continued for centuries; by the end of the 19th century, the Russian Empire reached from the Baltic Sea, to the Black Sea, to the Pacific Ocean, and for some time included colonies in the Americas and an unofficial colony in Africa in present-day Djibouti that lasted only a month.

Expansion into Asia and the Caucasus

The first stage from 1582 to 1650 resulted in North-East expansion from the Urals to the Pacific. Geographical expeditions mapped much of Siberia. The second stage from 1785 to 1830 looked South to the areas between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The key areas were Armenia and Georgia, with some better penetration of the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. By 1829, Russia controlled all of the Caucasus as shown in the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829. The third era, 1850 to 1860, was a brief interlude jumping to the East Coast, annexing the region from the Amur River to Manchuria. The fourth era, 1865 to 1885 incorporated Turkestan, and the northern approaches to India, sparking British fears of a threat to India in the Great Game.
Historian Michael Khodarkovsky describes Tsarist Russia as a "hybrid empire" that combined elements of continental and colonial empires. According to Kazakh scholar Kereihan Amanzholov, Russian colonialism had "no essential difference with the colonialist policies of Britain, France, and other European powers". Qing China defeated Russia in the early Sino-Russian border conflicts, although the Russian Empire later acquired Outer Manchuria in the Amur Annexation through the 1858 Treaty of Aigun from China. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russian Empire invaded Manchuria in 1900, and the Blagoveshchensk massacre occurred against Chinese residents on the Russian side of the border. Russian Empire reached its maximum territory in Asia with the Russo-Japanese War, where after its defeat, Russia ceded Manchuria, southern Sakhalin, Russian Dalian, and Port Arthur to Japan with the Treaty of Portsmouth, though Russia kept the northern portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Table of changes

Changes in territory to the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, from 1547 to 1905, listed chronologically:

Year	Tsar	Territory taken	Taken from/by	Background	Map
1552	Ivan the Terrible	Khanate of Kazan	Khanate of Kazan	Russo-Kazan Wars
1556	Ivan the Terrible	Astrakhan Khanate	Astrakhan Khanate	Russian control of the Volga trade route
1562	Ivan the Terrible	Nevel	Grand Duchy of Lithuania	Livonian War
1563	Ivan the Terrible	Polotsk and Velizh	Grand Duchy of Lithuania	Livonian War
1566	Ivan the Terrible	Usvyaty	Grand Duchy of Lithuania	Livonian War
1580	Ivan the Terrible	Loss of Usvyaty	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Livonian War
1582	Ivan the Terrible	Loss of Polotsk and Velizh	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Livonian War
1585	Feodor I of Russia	Sevsk	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
1598	Feodor I of Russia	Khanate of Sibir	Khanate of Sibir	Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir
1582 – 1778	gradual	Siberia	Indigenous people	Russian conquest of Siberia
1617	Time of Troubles	Loss of Ingria and Kexholm County	Sweden	Ingrian War
1618	Time of Troubles	Loss of Severia, Smolensk region, Sebezh and Nevel	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Russo-Polish War
1634	Michael I of Russia	Town of Serpeysk	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Smolensk War
1644	Michael I of Russia	Town of Trubchevsk	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
1667	Alexis of Russia	Smolensk, Left-bank Ukraine, Kiev, Zaporizhzhia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Russo-Polish War
1681	Feodor III of Russia	Qasim Khanate	Qasim Khanate	Death of Queen Fatima Soltan
1686	Peter the Great	Gain of Kiev and Zaporizhzhia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Union with Poland against Ottoman Empire
1700	Peter the Great	Gain of Azov	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1711	Peter the Great	Loss of Azov	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1721	Peter the Great	Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, and Karelia	Sweden	Great Northern War
1723	Peter the Great	Derbent, Baku, Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad	Guarded Domains of Iran	Russo-Persian War
1732	Anna of Russia	Loss of Derbent, Baku, Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad	Guarded Domains of Iran	Russo-Turkish War
1739	Anna of Russia	Regain of Azov	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1743	Elizabeth of Russia	South-western Karelia	Sweden	Russo-Swedish War
1758	Elizabeth of Russia	Sambia, Lithuania Minor, Natangia	Kingdom of Prussia	Seven Years' War
1762	Peter III	Loss of Sambia, Lithuania Minor, Natangia	Kingdom of Prussia	Miracle of the House of Brandenburg
1771	Catherine the Great	Kalmyk Khanate	Kalmyk Khanate	exodus of the Kalmyks to Dzungaria
1772	Catherine the Great	Inflanty Voivodeship and parts of historic White Ruthenia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	First Partition of Poland
1774	Catherine the Great	Southern Bug and Karbadino	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1783	Catherine the Great	Crimean Khanate	Ottoman Empire	Annexation of the vassal state
1792	Catherine the Great	Yedisan	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1793	Catherine the Great	Right-bank Ukraine, most of Podolia, eastern Volhynia and Belarus	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Second Partition of Poland
1795	Catherine the Great	Courland, Semigalia, Samogitia, Kaunas, Vilnius, western Polesie and Volhynia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Third Partition of Poland
1799	Paul I of Russia	Alaska	Indigenous people	Russian America
1801	Alexander I of Russia	Eastern Georgia	Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti	Annexation of Georgia
1807	Alexander I of Russia	Białystok	Kingdom of Prussia	Napoleonic Wars
1809	Alexander I of Russia	Tarnopol	Austrian Empire	War of the Fifth Coalition
1809	Alexander I of Russia	Grand Duchy of Finland	Sweden	Finnish War
1810	Alexander I of Russia	Western Georgia	Kingdom of Imereti	Annexation of Georgia
1812	Alexander I of Russia	Bessarabia	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1813	Alexander I of Russia	Duchy of Warsaw	France	Napoleonic Wars
1813	Alexander I of Russia	Georgia, Dagestan, parts of northern Azerbaijan, and parts of northern Armenia	Sublime State of Persia	Russo-Persian War
1815	Alexander I of Russia	Congress Poland	Duchy of Warsaw	Napoleonic Wars
1815	Alexander I of Russia	Loss of Tarnopol	Austrian Empire	Napoleonic Wars
1828	Nicholas I of Russia	Iğdır Province, rest of northern Azerbaijan, and Armenia	Sublime State of Persia	Russo-Persian War
1829	Nicholas l of Russia	Danube Delta, Anapa, Novorossiysk, Poti, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1856	Alexander II of Russia	Loss of Danube Delta and Southern Bessarabia	Principality of Moldavia	Crimean War
1858	Alexander II of Russia	North of the Amur River	Qing Empire	Second Opium War
1859	Alexander II of Russia	Caucasian Imamate	Caucasian Imamate	Caucasian War
1860	Alexander II of Russia	East of the Ussuri River	Qing Empire	Second Opium War
1730–1863	gradual	Kazakhstan	Lesser Horde, Middle Horde, Great Horde	Incorporation of the Kazakh Khanate
1864	Alexander II of Russia	Circassia	Circassians	Caucasian War
1866	Alexander II of Russia	Uzbekistan	Emirate of Bukhara	Russian conquest of Bukhara
1867	Alexander II of Russia	Loss of Alaska	United States of America	Alaska Purchase
1873	Alexander II of Russia	North Turkmenistan	Khanate of Khiva	Khivan campaign of 1873
1875	Alexander II of Russia	Sakhalin	Empire of Japan	border settlement with Japan
1876	Alexander II of Russia	Kyrgyzstan and West Tajikistan	Khanate of Kokand	Annexation of the vassal state
1878	Alexander II of Russia	Regain of Southern Bessarabia	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1878	Alexander II of Russia	Kars Oblast and Batum Oblast	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War
1885	Alexander III of Russia	South Turkmenistan	Turkmens	Turkmen campaign
1895	Alexander III of Russia	East Tajikistan	sparsely populated	Exploration of the Pamir plateau
1905	Nicholas II of Russia	Loss of South Sakhalin	Empire of Japan	Russo-Japanese War